Leaders of a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee kicked off a Tuesday hearing with a fuzzy bipartisan consensus that the Clean Air Act could use an update.
They and other members of the Environment Subcommittee then spent the remainder of the afternoon sparring over the specifics of a five-bill package of Republican legislation that would rework significant portions of the landmark environmental law.
Among other changes, the legislation would effectively end a key industrial permitting program in its current form, strip EPA of its prerogative to assess federal construction projects for their environmental effects and allow the president to waive a key compliance requirement for the semiconductor industry on national security grounds.
As justification for the overhaul, Subcommittee Chair Gary Palmer (R-Ala.) led off with what has become a favored GOP theme this year: that change is essential to fending off China in the global battle for dominance in the field of artificial intelligence.
