By Tulesi Suresh
On January 4, the Biden administration announced that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will be missing several self-imposed deadlines in March 2023 for making major environmental standards. If delayed for too long, these regulations could be vulnerable to future legal challenges.
They released this information in a document formally called the Unified Agenda, which is a semiannual document outlining the White House’s latest regulatory plans across agencies. Some of the areas that will be affected include the following.
Greenhouse gas emission standards for power plants must be changed. The deadline to propose them in March 2023 has now been delayed to April, with finalizations in June of next year. In addition, soot, a deadly air pollutant, was supposed to meet tougher limits this spring. Now, the EPA is expected to propose a new rule later this month and be released by August. Rules that will curb emissions of air pollutants from power plant smokestacks are now delayed until March, and a rule targeting leaks of methane from oil operations on public lands has been delayed from February to September. Methane is a greenhouse gas that is much more powerful than carbon dioxide.
If these regulations are delayed until next year, they could be subject to legal challenges or be repealed in the future. If issued in the final days of Biden’s first term, a potentially Republican majority in Congress could overturn them. This is due to the Congressional Review Act, which states that Congress has 60 days to repeal any regulation through a majority vote. Although the Biden Administration has taken big steps to protect the planet compared to its predecessors, climate advocates and citizens alike hope that the government does not delay these crucial climate goals until it is too late.
