US Senate appropriators target water regulations

OREANDA-NEWS. June 17, 2016. Republican lawmakers in the US Senate are taking aim at new water regulations they say could constrain coal production and make it harder to obtain permits needed by the oil and natural gas industry.

The Senate Appropriations committee voted 16-14 today to advance a \\$32bn spending bill that includes a policy rider blocking the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from enforcing a rule modifying the scope of waters protected under the Clean Water Act. Coal producers and oil and gas groups worry the rule could increase red tape and constrain energy production.

Democrats voted against the bill because of that and other "poison pill" riders they say make it unlikely the bill could ever reach the Senate floor. The bill also seeks to block a stream protection rule that coal groups oppose. Another rider would stop the lesser prairie chicken from gaining endangered species protections, a top concern for Permian basin oil and gas producers.

"None of these provisions have any place in the appropriations process," senator Tom Udall (D-New Mexico) said during mark-up of the bill today. "Adding controversial language only makes it harder to do our jobs."

Republican lawmakers defended the policy riders in the bill, which would fund EPA and the US Interior Department in fiscal 2017. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), who chairs the subcommittee that drafted the bill, said portions of the bill had broad bipartisan support.

The committee today approved an amendment from Senator Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana) that would give oil and gas producers a year, rather than 180 days, to start drilling on new federal offshore leases. Cassidy submitted, but later withdrew, an amendment that would block new air pollution regulations for offshore oil and gas producers.

The US House Appropriations committee yesterday advanced in a party-line vote a separate bill providing \\$32.1bn in funding for EPA and Interior in fiscal 2017. Republicans included riders in the bill that would block the same water regulations and also delay new greenhouse gas regulations for power plants and oil and gas producers.