To watch Senator Capito’s opening statement, click here or the image above.
To watch Senator Capito’s first round of questions, click here.
To watch Senator Capito’s second round of questions, click here.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), the top Republican on the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, today questioned North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality Secretary Michael Regan, the nominee for U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator, during today’s nomination hearing.

Senator Capito focused her questions on the significant impacts overreaching environmental regulations have had on West Virginia’s economy in the past and the need to protect air and water without compromising jobs. Senator Capito also secured a commitment from Michael Regan to visit states like West Virginia that are directly impacted by the environmental policies—something the Obama-Biden administration neglected to do when it proposed its illegal Clean Power Plan.

Click here for Senator Capito’s opening statement and see below for highlights of her questioning portion during the hearing.

HIGHLIGHTS:

TRANSPARENCY AND ACCOUNTABILITY: “I’m going to begin where you and I talked on the phone and where I eluded to in my opening statement, and that is the fact of having a domestic Climate Czar in the White House who was a former administrator of the EPA who really doesn’t have any accountability to Congress or to any of those of us for oversight. Apparently her [Gina McCarthy] authority is very sweeping. And she stated, ‘every single piece of the federal budget’ will reflect climate change policy. Her remark demonstrates there is no part of the government beyond her reach… What about if there is a disagreement between the Climate Czar and the administrator of the EPA? I would hope that the transparency pledge would follow through on that—if you reach decisions, who is making that decision and how it was determined?”

SEEING THE IMPACTS FIRSTHAND: “One of the objections that I have had over the past is that when really difficult issues come in front of the EPA that could result in—as we saw during the Obama administration—drastic job losses and a lot of economic downturn in a particular area—that you and your agency would come to where the biggest impacts are going to be. This was not done in the past, and as I said, it still stings, and it’s not right. So, I know you have a history of this in North Carolina. If you could pledge to me that you can continue that as an administrator, that would be good news for us.”

ADDRESSING PFAS: “I am very passionate about this issue [PFAS], very concerned about the impacts of PFAS in the long term. I did press Administrator Wheeler to get to a clean drinking standard. Didn’t get there. I agree with her [Senator Gillibrand], there is a pathway towards it, but I am like-minded with her in terms of the restlessness of getting there and the delay, so I would impress upon you how important I think that is to our nation and to our nation’s younger generation as they are living through the impacts of what this could have on our drinking water. So, I would just ask a pledge to keep working with me and us on that.”

SAME WORDS AND RHETORIC: “In West Virginia we say, ‘Coal keeps the lights on,’ which it does. But, it also powers a lot of vehicles, and it employs a lot of people. So, again, when we talk about what the effects are of transitioning jobs and environmental justice and how it impacts people in all different communities, I think the experience that I experienced with the 1.8 million West Virginians in the past several years in the Obama administration where now we see some of the same players… you’re a fresh face, very transparent, ready to work, and I really welcome that, because I am concerned. Because some of the same words and the same rhetoric was given to us then… We just got dropped on our heads, and it really, really hurt our part of the country.” 

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