Inhofe defends coal ash enforcement transfer to Oklahoma

While the EPA decision transferring coal ash enforcement to Oklahoma regulators resulted in a lawsuit threat from environmental groups, U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe is praising the move. He helped author it.

Oklahoma is the first state in the nation to be granted the authority by the Environmental Protection Agency and it was Sen. Inhofe who authored the bipartisan legislation signed by President Obama. The legislation created a state permitting program under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.

“This is exactly how cooperative federalism should work,” Inhofe said in a press release this week. “States are best equipped to manage environmental concerns, like coal ash management, because they are the ones most familiar with their own, unique circumstances.

He authored the legislation in 2016 and said it will improve regulatory certainty and support energy providers and consumers.

Oklahoma submitted its draft application last summer. In December, the EPA informed the state its application was complete and a 180-day review was underway. A public hearing on the application was held in February.

As chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, Senator Inhofe led two hearings examining the challenges of the 2015 CCR rule and the need for legislation to allow Oklahoma and other states to regulate CCR through EPA-approved state permit programs rather than through the self-implementing requirements of the CCR rule.  Representatives of electric utilities and states testified in favor of amending RCRA to allow state permit programs because they would be able to tailor the requirements for disposing of CCR to address the specific risks and concerns posed by an individual utility, rather than through the one-size-fits-all national standards in the 2015 CCR rule.

At the time, Inhofe worked with then-ranking member Barbara Boxer. The legislation was part of the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation (WINN) Act which passed the Senate on a 78-21 vote and was enacted into law December 2016.