GOP getting bolder in trying to eliminate the EPA

There are anti-Environmental Protection Agency bills and then there is Congressman Sam Johnson’s (R-Texas) anti-EPA bill.

Known as the Wasteful EPA Programs Elimination Act (H.R. 2111), the legislation would kill off all EPA grant programs, force the agency to sell off all underutilized properties, end all environmental justice programs and fully eliminate federal funding for 13 other programs, among other provisions.

Johnson’s bill would further bar the agency from regulating greenhouse gases from the nation’s fleet of power plants and vehicles, as well as prohibit the use of federal funds to develop a new national ozone standard.

“In recent years we have seen the EPA – under this President – overstep its bounds by putting out one regulation after another that is harming U.S. economic competitiveness, killing American jobs, and threatening electric reliability,” Johnson said in a statement to the Dallas Morning News. “The fact is individual states are best placed when it comes to protecting the environment because they have a better understanding of their own local conditions – unlike the out-of-touch and out-of-control federal bureaucrats in Washington!”

According to an estimate from the Heritage Foundation, the bill would generate savings of more than $7.5 billion over ten years.

Also killed under Johnson’s approach would be the greenhouse gas reporting program, climate research efforts, the clean diesel campaign and green infrastructure programs to help prepare communities for the impacts of climate change.

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http://www.bna.com/heres-antiepa-bill-b17179926103/