On the recordJuly 22, 2015
The gentleman from West Virginia seems to suggest that this legislation will improve enforcement of EPA's important coal ash standards. If that were true, the public interest groups that have fought for strong standards for years would support it. Democratic Members that have conducted strong oversight of coal ash disasters in the rulemaking process would also support it. And the EPA, which has worked for decades to establish effective protective requirements, would support it. Those environmental groups and public health groups strongly oppose this bill, I strongly oppose this bill, and the administration strongly opposes the bill. That is because this bill is not needed to ensure effective enforcement of the EPA's coal ash rule, and it won't have that effect. You may hear that EPA's rule will only be enforced through citizen suits, and that is simply not true. While citizen suits have been and will continue to be an important component of all environmental enforcement, States will play an important part in enforcing EPA's final coal ash rule. They will do so either by bringing citizen suits themselves or by incorporating the requirements of EPA's rule into their State programs. States want to take on this role. They told the EPA as much in comments on the coal ash proposed rule. In response to those requests, EPA established in the rule a mechanism to review and approve State programs implementing these requirements.…
