Chairman Capito Asks Fotouhi, Szabo about Importance of Cooperative Federalism, Energy Reliability in Nominations Hearing

To watch Chairman Capito’s questions, click here or the image above.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, led ahearing on the nominations of David Fotouhi to be Deputy Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Aaron Szabo to be Assistant Administrator for the Office of Air and Radiation of the EPA. During the hearing, Chairman Capito asked the nominees about the importance of cooperative federalism and addressing America’s energy reliability concerns, as well as establishing EPA rules consistent with laws passed by Congress.

HIGHLIGHTS:

COOPERATIVE FEDERALISM:

CHAIRMAN CAPITO:

“The environmental laws are based on the principle of which states are co-regulatory partners with the federal government. Rather than considering them, the states, as partners, the previous Administration has sort of overlooked and treated the states as subordinates. State and local environmental agencies are dedicated to working together with federal regulators, and a lot of times, certainly understand the areas, their own regions, a lot better. State agencies are best suited to understand the diversity in their geographic, economic, and social elements…will you commit to engaging with states under the cooperative federalism framework to establish workable rules and implementation strategies, this is for both of you, to protect public health and the environment?”

DAVID FOTOUHI:

“Yes, absolutely. The environmental statutes, as you said, broadly speaking, are drafted in a way that the federal government, and states, and tribes, and others work in partnership to achieve the results that Congress intended when those statutes were promulgated, doing so in a way that empowers states through cooperative federalism, as you mentioned, providing the technical assistance that states need to understand their resources best. Also to encourage states and tribes to assume the responsibility for federal permitting programs will be a priority of mine if confirmed.”

AARON SZABO:

“The importance of cooperative federalism, as David mentioned, it is important that states have the primary role in regulating. They know what's best for their states. It's something I believe, and it's something the Clean Air Act requires. States know how to regulate their entities the best, and it's important to allow them to do that under the Clean Air Act. Additionally, it's also important not to punish those states for emissions that are not the fault of their own state. I think that we can work better, in a cooperative manner with the states, and provide those environmental protections faster.”

ENERGY RELIABILITY:

CHAIRMAN CAPITO:

“We know that the Clean Power Plan, and certainly you have a lot of experience with this, intentionally designed to impose unattainable requirements to cause the early retirement of a lot of our coal and natural gas plants. But, during the same time, prices have skyrocketed and our reliability has been called into question. The North American Electric Reliability Corporation forecast that well over half of the U.S. will face potential electricity shortages and blackout risks, and this is a largely result of reduced supply baseload power….as you oversee and implement the Clean Air Act, statutory obligations to protect public health and environment, will you ensure that the Agency takes into account electric reliability and energy affordability on the impacts on American families?”

AARON SZABO:

“If confirmed, we are bound by what is stated in the Clean Air Act, and that includes the consideration of costs and impacts on the country. With respect to any action within section 111 that the Clean Power Plan was, or the Clean Power Plan 2.0, whichever version you want to call it, was established under, we must follow the law and that includes the consideration of impacts on electricity reliability.”

DAVID FOTOUHI:

“I think the Agency needs to heed the decision of the Supreme Court in the West Virginia case. In particular, that was very clear that EPA is not a grid-wide energy regulator. It is not an entity that is responsible for determining whether generation shifting should occur between different sources. EPA should always, when implementing the Clean Air Act or any other program, abide by its statutory authority that Congress has delegated to it.”

DURABLE RULE MAKING: 

CHAIRMAN CAPITO: 

“Mr. Fotouhi, you have served as an attorney who has advised and litigated on behalf of both private clients and the EPA for almost 15 years. How would that experience guide your approach to ensuring that EPA’s rules are consistent with statute and durable for the long term?

DAVID FOTOUHI:

“Rule of law is my touchstone. It's extremely important to me as a professional, as an environmental lawyer, as it was the case when I served at EPA in my role there, advising the administrator on options and legal issues. The critical touchstone has to be in every occasion, ensuring that we are following the congressional authorization and statutory language that's been drafted by Congress. The Supreme Court has been very clear on this point, repeatedly. In the Biden administration alone, the Biden EPA lost every Supreme Court case that it had in front of the court over the last four years. We need to restore trust in EPA’s actions, and part of that is to ensure that those actions are done consistently with the law, and that we are not over reading our statutory authority and exceeding the boundaries that this Congress has placed on the agency.”

Click HERE to watch Chairman Capito’s questions.

Click HERE to watch Chairman Capito’s opening statement.