Senate Environment and Public Works ranking member Sheldon Whitehouse is pursuing legislation to scrap a recent EPA rule that allows more smog-forming pollution from the Indiana coal-fired power sector.
The measure, S.J.Res. 60, would tap the Congressional Review Act to repeal the interim final rule published in May. It comes after Republicans used the rule-killing law to repeal several Biden administration energy and environment initiatives.
Whitehouse’s legislation is unlikely to succeed with Republicans in control of Congress and the White House. While a spokesperson had no comment Monday on the Rhode Island senator’s rationale, the EPA rule loosened the yearly “budget” for emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) from Indiana plants during the summertime ozone season, which runs from May through September.
That decision stemmed both from delays in two previously planned plant retirements and the fallout from the Supreme Court’s decision in June 2024 to stay EPA’s latest “good neighbor” plan, according to the rule.
