Source: United States Senator for West Virginia Shelley Moore Capito
To watch Senator Capito’s questioning, click here or the image above.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), a member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies and Ranking Member of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, participated in a hearing today to review the FY23 Budget request of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). During the hearing, Senator Capito pressed EPA Administrator Michael Regan about American energy producers and energy states’ access to forming EPA policy, questioned EPA’s telework strategy, and expressed frustration with the administration’s lack of transparency when it comes to EPA’s Justice40 initiative.
HIGHLIGHTS:
ON PRIORITIZING AMERICAN ENERGY: “You’ve pledged to have all stakeholder involvement, to listen to everybody, before making a decision knowing that you’re not going to please everybody in the room. And there was a general feeling within this – this is related to pipelines and natural gas development – that they had made numerous requests to EPA to be a stakeholder, to have their positions heard. I think we all see what’s happening in Europe. We know that the reliance on our own energy resources and an all the above energy plan. And we’re feeling, I think most of us, that energy states, feeling as though that’s not really moving forward through the administration with some of the pipelines that have been cancelled. I have the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) in West Virginia that has had some huge difficulties, even though it’s 95% complete. I just want to ask for your pledge again, that folks in the energy industry have an ability to come knock on your door and actually have their side of the story heard. I think they’re doing a lot to reduce their emissions in half on the methane side and other side. I know you’re getting ready to do a methane rule. I sensed some frustration with them.”
ON EPA TELEWORK POLICY: “Are all of those people back in the office and working post pandemic? Your new schedule, for some people, includes fully remote work, right? According to an article that I read? Then also coming in one day every two weeks? So, this is not actually everybody coming in. It can be a blended system, correct?”
ON EPA’S JUSTICE40 INITIATIVE: “On the Justice40 issue, I’ve tried to dig deep into that to see – it’s pledged that 40% of the funding that is going to go to justice communities. Are you quantifying that? I mean, is there a website that we can go to that this is going to show me where and how this pledge of 40% has actually been translated into different communities in Alaska or West Virginia or Mississippi?”
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