HR7592-119

What This Bill Does

This bill applies zero-based regulatory budgeting to specified energy regulators. Covered agencies are the Department of Energy; Interior offices including the Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, and Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement; and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Covered regulations are tied to statutes such as the Atomic Energy Act, Energy Policy Acts, Energy Policy and Conservation Act appliance rules, Federal Land Policy and Management Act, Mining Law of 1872, Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act, Federal Power Act, Natural Gas Act, and Powerplant and Industrial Fuel Use Act. Within 90 days, each covered agency must amend existing covered rules so they expire within one year. New covered rules generally must expire within five years, unless the agency head determines the rule has a net deregulatory effect and notifies OMB. Agencies may extend rules in five-year increments only after a public-comment opportunity on costs and benefits and a finding that extension is warranted, though net-deregulatory amendments can extend without that process. If a rule expires without extension, it has no effect, cannot be enforced, and must be removed from the CFR as soon as practicable. Severability and administrative savings clauses preserve agency statutory authority and avoid creating private enforcement rights.

Who Benefits and How

Energy producers, oil and gas developers, mining companies, electric utilities, regulated project applicants, and deregulatory policy advocates benefit from automatic sunset pressure and repeated cost-benefit review of energy and land-use regulations.

Who Bears the Burden and How

DOE, BLM, BOEM, BSEE, OSMRE, FERC, OMB, environmental regulators, public-interest commenters, and agencies maintaining the CFR must track expiration dates, run public-comment processes, justify extensions, identify net-deregulatory rules, stop enforcement after expiration, and remove expired regulations.

Key Provisions

• Defines covered energy agencies and covered regulations under major energy, public-land, mining, offshore, power, gas, and fuel-use statutes.
• Requires covered agencies within 90 days to amend existing covered regulations so they expire within one year.
• Requires new covered regulations to expire within five years unless the agency determines a net deregulatory effect and notifies OMB.
• Limits extensions to five-year periods after public comment on costs and benefits and an agency determination that extension is warranted.
• Provides that expired regulations have no effect, cannot be enforced, and must be removed from the Code of Federal Regulations.