Washington D.C. – In response to a court ruling vehemently denying the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) attempt to interfere with how Texas adheres to air quality standards under the Clean Air Act, Science, Space, and Technology Committee Chairman Ralph Hall (R-TX) applauded the judicial branch’s recognition of EPA pursuing a regulatory agenda without lawful justification.

The federal Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that EPA has “had no legal basis on which to disapprove Texas’s program to meet the national ambient air-quality standards,”  further stating that the EPA “failed to identify a single provision of the Act that Texas’s program violated, let alone explain its reasons for reaching its conclusion.”

Chairman Hall released the following statement:

I am pleased that the Court refuted the Administration’s attempt to dictate how states meet air-quality standards. This is another example of what has become a pattern by the EPA of pursuing its regulatory agenda, without proper justification. President Obama and his Administration continue to pursue a regulatory regime that will kill jobs and make energy more expensive. 

“After a senior EPA official told Congress that the Agency is not ‘in the business of creating jobs,’ this ruling further illustrates that EPA is out-of-touch.  Its unjustified regulatory onslaught is putting real Americans out of work.

“Further, the Science, Space, and Technology Committee has exposed a pattern by the EPA of circumventing scientific integrity, openness, and transparency in an attempt to justify proposed regulations.  The EPA regularly fails to analyze and communicate scientific uncertainties, refuses to make key scientific data publicly available, inflates health benefits while understating actual economic costs, and short-changes the peer review process.  Now the courts have again ruled that the Agency is concurrently skirting the law.  I applaud the court ruling in favor of Texas and in favor of States’ rights.”

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