By Pete Kasperowicz and Ben Geman | The Hill
The House approved legislation on Thursday that would give the Department of Energy the right to block the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) energy-related regulations when it believes those rules would hurt economic growth.
The Energy Consumers Relief Act, H.R. 1582, passed the House in a 232-181 vote. As expected, most Democrats rejected the bill, but nine joined Republicans to pass it.
The legislation is meant to stop EPA rules that Republicans say will hinder economic growth.
The bill arrives as the EPA is preparing rules including carbon emissions standards for power plants and a measure that would force refiners to further cut the sulfur content of gasoline.
