Rep. Graves files bill to stop all EPA regulations

Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.) introduced a bill Wednesday that would stop every regulation the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is currently developing and require a review of all existing rules.

Graves’ legislation would prohibit EPA from taking action on any rules until its retroactive review is complete, and require congressional approval of all regulations that have an economic cost above $50 billion, including past ones.

{mosads}Graves, chairman of the Small Business Committee, used EPA head Gina McCarthy’s visit this week to his northern Missouri district to highlight the “Waters of the United States” rule, a proposal to redefine the federal government’s jurisdiction over lakes and streams under the Clean Water Act. McCarthy is meeting with farmers to promote the rule and allay their fears about it.

“Administrator McCarthy and the EPA will soon find out that Washington bureaucrats are becoming far too aggressive in attacking our way of life,” Graves said in a statement. “When the EPA says that property owners, farmers, and livestock producers must stomach higher costs, longer delays, and bigger headaches, it’s up to Congress to put up a roadblock.”

He accused McCarthy of visiting Missouri to sell the Obama administration’s “radical agenda to farmers and property owners.”

The “Stop the EPA Act” is also aimed at the agency’s proposals to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from power plants.

The EPA’s most recent regulatory agenda listed 134 proposed actions, the lowest since electronic records began in 1995. Graves’ bill would halt all of those actions, including regulations to reduce carbon emissions from oil refineries, set renewable few blending mandates and revise solid waste disposal rules, among many others.