Rep. Pfluger, Administrator Zeldin Discuss Commonsense EPA Reforms to Protect Health, Power Growth, and Restore Accountability

This press release from Representative August Pfluger (R-TX) was published on 2026-05-01 and titled "Rep. Pfluger, Administrator Zeldin Discuss Commonsense EPA Reforms to Protect Health, Power Growth, and Restore Accounta". It focuses on the environment.

Rep. Pfluger, Administrator Zeldin Discuss Commonsense EPA Reforms to Protect Health, Power Growth, and Restore Accountability

WASHINGTON, DC — Congressman August Pfluger (TX-11), a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, participated in a high-profile Environment Subcommittee hearing with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin. During the hearing, Rep. Pfluger underscored the significance of the Supreme Court's landmark Loper Bright decision to rein in the unelected administrative state and called out his colleagues who were unaware of it, given its crucial role in federal rulemaking. He also asked Administrator Zeldin to outline how the EPA is returning to a clear reading and implementation of the Clean Air Act as written to protect public health without stifling economic innovation or progress. Rep. Pfluger also highlighted the remarkable strides energy producers in the Permian Basin have made in reducing emissions while simultaneously growing energy output. Additionally, he welcomed an update from Administrator Zeldin on the OOOOb and OOOOc methane rules and the HFC Management Rule. Watch Rep. Pfluger's questioning HERE or by clicking on the image below. Read Rep. Pfluger's exchange with EPA Administrator Zeldin below: Rep. Pfluger : Director, thank you for being here. Thank you for your service in riding the ship. My colleagues across the aisle claim that this EPA deregulatory actions are killing Americans. Couldn't be more false. The truth is actually the opposite, and what kills Americans is unaffordable energy in an unreliable electric grid, and that's exactly what the previous administration's EPA was delivering. The Biden EPA imposed trillions of dollars in regulatory costs and based on widely-inflated benefit calculations, assigning speculative dollar values to statistical lives while ignoring the real-world consequences of making energy unaffordable. 25 million American households have reported going without food or medicine to pay their energy bills. That is the human cost of regulatory excess. This EPA is doing what the agency is supposed to: rigorous, honest cost-benefit analysis, not rubber-stamping regulations that strangle reliable energy production while claiming to save lives on a spreadsheet. Affordable, reliable energy is the foundation of American health and safety, and Administrator Zeldin, your reforms are protecting Americans not by speculating about benefits, but by delivering them. And I'll get to Loper Bright. It's shameful that some of our colleagues have no idea what Loper Bright actually is and what it does. Thank you for the words that you had yesterday at a hearing here on Capitol Hill, and Loper Bright happened because of left-wing EPA overreach. That's exactly why we are here. And I'd like to ask you, how do you respond to the claim that faithfully reading the Clean Air Act as written somehow harms public health, and what actual authorities did Congress provide that this administration is now properly executing to benefit health? Administrator Zeldin : Thank you for asking. For a long time, that Chevron Doctrine was in place. This got challenged. For those who aren't familiar with the Chevron Doctrine, basically, agency heads were looking at federal statute and would get creative. The statute wouldn't say that an agency head can't do something. So they'd say, Well, I guess that means that we can. We saw that used inside of the 2009 Endangerment Finding. If you read the Endangerment Finding throughout it, you'll see that discretion is being used just because it doesn't say we can't. Well, I guess that means we can. Well, the Supreme Court weighed in on Loper Bright and said, You can't do that anymore, that you have to follow the best reading of statute, the Major Questions Doctrine, which was also put forth by the Supreme Court in recent years in their cases, also says that an agency can impose trillions of dollars of regulation on their own. That's something that should have a debate and a vote in Congress. And what does that all mean when a member might be upset that we repeal the 2009 Endangerment Finding? Well, if you want an agency like the EPA to impose trillions of dollars of regulations and regulate the heck out of greenhouse gas emissions, it's really simple. Introduce a bill, debate it, get it passed, change the law, and we'll follow the law. The commitment that I made when I was nominated, the commitment that I reiterate here today, is that I will follow the best reading of the law, period. Rep. Pfluger : Thank you for that. And I'll ask, can you provide an update regarding what actions the EPA is considering on the reconsideration of Quad Ob and c, which cost hundreds of billions of dollars in excess, and is another example of left-wing overreach? Administrator Zeldin : Absolutely, this has been a multiple-phased process. We delayed a compliance deadline to allow us to fix the flaws with the OOOOb and OOOOc regulations. We just announced the second phase of the reconsideration. We're about to announce a third phase as soon as this week. We'll be p