WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Ranking Member of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, today released the below statement following her vote opposing Michael Regan as administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA):
“The Obama-Biden administration instituted sweeping regulations that crushed West Virginia’s economic foundation without considering the real-world impacts those policies have on hardworking families and their communities. While I have enjoyed getting to know Michael Regan through my role as Ranking Member of the EPW Committee, and appreciate his willingness to visit West Virginia, I am deeply concerned with his lack of commitment to a different policy agenda than that of the Obama administration.
“During his nomination hearing, Secretary Regan would not comment as to whether the so-called Clean Power Plan would be reinstated. He would not rule out a return to the 2015 WOTUS Rule. And, he would not say whether the EPA would again claim overreaching authority to force states to shift electricity generation sources. However, my greatest concern with Secretary Regan and EPA leadership in general is the probability that unaccountable climate czar Gina McCarthy and other Obama-era officials will be the ones calling the shots. I cannot support Secretary Regan when he supports Gina McCarthy—a woman who gleefully overreached her authority in her time as EPA administrator and is responsible for many of the policies that devastated West Virginia. Without commitments to different policies than what was pursued in the Obama EPA, I cannot support Secretary Regan today.”
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