NBC: Sen. Alex Padilla puts hold on EPA nominees
By Zoë Richards and Frank Thorp V
Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., a member of the Environment and Public Works Committee, has put a hold on four nominees for the Environmental Protection Agency.
Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said on the Senate floor that senators would be voting this week on a measure to undo an electric vehicle mandate in California via the Congressional Review Act.
Padilla accused the EPA of a “cynical attempt to weaponize” the Congressional Review Act by ignoring precedent and submitting waivers issued to California under the Clean Air Act as federal rules, which are subject to the Congressional Review Act and require only simple majorities to undo.
“If this attempt is successful, the consequences will be far-reaching, not only for our clean energy economy, the air our children breathe, and for our climate, but for the future of the CRA and for the Senate as an institution,” Padilla said in a statement.
Sen. Alex Padilla puts hold on EPA nominees, continued
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said in a statement today that the Biden administration had “failed to send rules on California’s waivers to Congress, preventing Members of Congress from deciding on extremely consequential actions that have massive impacts and costs across the entire United States.”
“The Trump EPA is transparently correcting this wrong and rightly following the rule of law,” Zeldin added.
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