AUSTIN – Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Distinguished Senior Fellow-in-Residence and Director of the Armstrong Center for Energy & the Environment Kathleen Hartnett White and Fueling Freedom Project Director Doug Domenech issued the following statements in reaction to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the Michigan et al. v. Environmental Protection Agency et al. case this morning:
“The Supreme Court’s rejection of EPA’s refusal to consider cost of the Mercury Rule in Michigan et al. v. EPA et al.—the most expensive regulation the EPA has ever adopted—is a needed retreat from the Court’s historically broad deference to EPA’s agenda,” said White. “Unless checked, the EPA’s unprecedented regulatory initiative means costs, now in the hundreds of billions, for regulation devoid of meaningful benefits for human health.”
“Even EPA admitted that this rule’s health benefits are marginable to non-detectable, but still proceeded to impose a mandate costing $9.6 billion annually compared to only $6 million in benefits. This means regulatory costs 1600 to 2400 times higher than alleged benefits.
“EPA’s mercury rule is based on not only fatally flawed regulatory impact analyses but also wildly manipulated science. EPA now routinely alarms the American people about phantom health risks to force a radical energy policy repeatedly opposed by the U.S. Congress. EPA rules now undermine the affordability and supply of electric power. The Court’s 5-4 rebuff to the EPA is welcome but perilously rests on the vote of a single Justice.”
“The Supreme Court’s ruling today illustrates the environmental-regulation-at-any-cost mentality of this EPA,” said Domenech. “States should think long and hard before complying with the newest Clean Power Plan before it is fully litigated. While the EPA lost the case today, their rule has already caused damage to the economy, jobs, and cost of energy.”
The Honorable Kathleen Hartnett White is the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Distinguished Senior Fellow-in-Residence and Director of the Armstrong Center for Energy & the Environment. She is well known as a pioneer in the arena of conservative energy and environmental reform. Prior to joining the Foundation, White served a six-year term as Chairman and Commissioner of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, a regulatory agency in size second only to the EPA. She has widely published and testified on energy, EPA regulation, and on the substance of the Court’s ruling today. Her writing has appeared in numerous publications including The Hill, National Review, Investor’s Business Daily, Washington Examiner, Forbes, Daily Caller, and major Texas newspapers. White also recently testified before the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, the House Science Committee, and the House Natural Resource Committee. White’s recent work on this topic includes EPA’s Pretense of Science: Regulating Phantom Risks and the accompanying presentation, The Clean Air Act: The Case for Reform, andThe EPA’s Regulatory Avalanche, which appeared in the Dallas Morning News.
The Honorable Doug Domenech is the Director of the Fueling Freedom Project at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. Before coming to the Foundation, he served as Secretary of Natural Resources in the Commonwealth of Virginia, where he oversaw six state environmental, natural, and historic resource agencies with a combined budget of $480 million and staff of over 2,000. From 2001 to 2009, he served in several positions at the U.S. Department of the Interior in Washington, D.C., including as White House Liaison and Deputy Chief of Staff. His work with the Fueling Freedom Project now takes him to multiple states and the nation’s capital in shaping a liberty-oriented national energy and environmental policy.
To schedule an interview with Ms. White or Mr. Domenech, please contact Caroline Espinosa at [email protected] or 512-472-2700.
The Texas Public Policy Foundation is a non-profit, free-market research institute based in Austin, Texas.