{ "id": "RL33107", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORTS", "number": "RL33107", "active": false, "source": "EveryCRSReport.com, University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department", "versions": [ { "source": "EveryCRSReport.com", "id": 312468, "date": "2006-02-14", "retrieved": "2016-04-07T19:14:11.341029", "title": "Emergency Waiver of EPA Regulations: Authorities and Legislative Proposals in the Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina", "summary": "As state, local, and federal officials respond to Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, there has\nbeen\ndiscussion regarding whether environmental regulations might slow or impede response efforts, and\nwhether Congress needs to provide authority to waive environmental regulations in order to speed\nresponse to and recovery from the hurricane and subsequent flooding. \n \n Responding to these concerns, on September 16, 2005, Senator Inhofe, the Chairman of the\nSenate Environment and Public Works Committee, and Senator Vitter of Louisiana introduced\n S. 1711 , to allow the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to waive or modify the\napplication of any requirement that is contained in any law under EPA\u2019s administrative\njurisdiction,\nif it is necessary to respond in a timely and effective manner \u201cto a situation or damage\nrelating to\nHurricane Katrina.\u201d On September 22, Senator Vitter and Senator Landrieu of Louisiana\nintroduced\n S. 1765 and S. 1766 , identical bills to provide disaster relief and recovery\nincentives for Louisiana. Identical legislation, H.R. 3958 , was introduced by\nRepresentative Melancon of Louisiana on September 29. These bills would allow the President to\nissue emergency permits under which any project carried out in response to the disaster would be\nconsidered to be in compliance with any applicable Federal law. A fifth bill, Representative\nShadegg\u2019s H.R. 3836 , would require expedited issuance of permits for Katrina-related\nrefinery reconstruction.\n \n This report reviews some of the environmental laws that could affect response and recovery\nactions, discusses existing waiver authority, and identifies issues raised by proposals to grant new\nwaiver authority. The focus is on regulatory programs administered by EPA, including the Clean\nWater Act, Superfund, and the Clean Air Act. In the short term, in the immediate aftermath of\nHurricane Katrina, environmental regulations do not appear to have posed an obstacle to local, state,\nfederal, or private response efforts, in part because existing waiver or flexibility provisions were used\nin certain cases. \n \n For the longer term, the report raises questions concerning the waiver authority that new\nlegislation might grant, including what its scope (both geographic and regulatory) would be, how\nfacilities granted waivers would be regulated after the expiration of the waiver period, the effect of\nsuch legislation on state and local requirements, and whether substantive as well as procedural\nrequirements should be waived, if waivers are to be granted. \n \n Questions have also been raised regarding the requirements of the National Environmental\nPolicy Act (NEPA), a non-regulatory statute that, with exceptions, requires written analyses of\nenvironmental impacts before major federal actions are undertaken. NEPA questions are addressed\nin CRS Report RL33104 , NEPA and Hurricane Response, Recovery, and Rebuilding Efforts ,\nby\nLinda Luther. This report will not be updated.", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORTS", "active": false, "formats": [ { "format": "HTML", "encoding": "utf-8", "url": "http://www.crs.gov/Reports/RL33107", "sha1": "25d4faaf734d12dc6adad06ce60cb209f75b5ce9", "filename": "files/20060214_RL33107_25d4faaf734d12dc6adad06ce60cb209f75b5ce9.html", "images": null }, { "format": "PDF", "encoding": null, "url": "http://www.crs.gov/Reports/pdf/RL33107", "sha1": "6cdd5c9a1daa8597b0918545817864095bb53f51", "filename": "files/20060214_RL33107_6cdd5c9a1daa8597b0918545817864095bb53f51.pdf", "images": null } ], "topics": [] }, { "source": "University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department", "sourceLink": "https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metacrs7640/", "id": "RL33107 2005-09-29", "date": "2005-09-29", "retrieved": "2005-11-02T15:08:14", "title": "Emergency Waiver of EPA Regulations: Authorities and Legislative Proposals in the Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina", "summary": "This report reviews some of the environmental laws that could affect response and recovery actions, discusses existing waiver authority, and identifies issues raised by proposals to grant new waiver authority. The focus of the report is on regulatory programs administered by EPA, including the Clean Water Act, Superfund, and the Clean Air Act. In the short term, in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, environmental regulations do not appear to have posed an obstacle to local, state, federal, or private response efforts, in part because existing waiver or flexibility provisions were used in certain cases.", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORT", "active": false, "formats": [ { "format": "PDF", "filename": "files/20050929_RL33107_350e87300662f54295c396dd193fe38248954645.pdf" }, { "format": "HTML", "filename": "files/20050929_RL33107_350e87300662f54295c396dd193fe38248954645.html" } ], "topics": [ { "source": "LIV", "id": "Emergency management", "name": "Emergency management" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Environmental law enforcement", "name": "Environmental law enforcement" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Hurricane Katrina (2005)", "name": "Hurricane Katrina (2005)" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Environmental protection", "name": "Environmental protection" } ] } ], "topics": [ "Energy Policy", "Environmental Policy" ] }