I
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 1140
To authorize the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to
waive application of certain requirements with respect to processing and
refining a critical energy resource at a critical energy resource facility,
and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
FEBRUARY21, 2023
Mr. P
ENCEintroduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee
on Energy and Commerce
A BILL
To authorize the Administrator of the Environmental Protec-
tion Agency to waive application of certain requirements
with respect to processing and refining a critical energy
resource at a critical energy resource facility, and for
other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. WAIVER FOR NATIONAL SECURITY OR ENERGY 3
SECURITY. 4
(a) C
LEANAIRACTREQUIREMENTS.— 5
(1) I
N GENERAL.—If the Administrator of the 6
Environmental Protection Agency, in consultation 7
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with the Secretary of Energy, determines that, by 1
reason of a sudden increase in demand for, or a 2
shortage of, a critical energy resource, or another 3
cause, the processing or refining of a critical energy 4
resource at a critical energy resource facility is nec-5
essary to meet the national security or energy secu-6
rity needs of the United States, then the Adminis-7
trator may, with or without notice, hearing, or other 8
report, issue a temporary waiver of any requirement 9
under the Clean Air Act (42 U.S.C. 7401 et seq.) 10
with respect to such critical energy resource facility 11
that, in the judgment of the Administrator, will 12
allow for such processing or refining at such critical 13
energy resource facility as necessary to best meet 14
such needs and serve the public interest. 15
(2) C
ONFLICT WITH OTHER ENVIRONMENTAL 16
LAWS.—The Administrator shall ensure that any 17
waiver of a requirement under the Clean Air Act 18
under this subsection, to the maximum extent prac-19
ticable, does not result in a conflict with a require-20
ment of any other applicable Federal, State, or local 21
environmental law or regulation and minimizes any 22
adverse environmental impacts. 23
(3) V
IOLATIONS OF OTHER ENVIRONMENTAL 24
LAWS.—To the extent any omission or action taken 25
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by a party under a waiver issued under this sub-1
section is in conflict with any requirement of a Fed-2
eral, State, or local environmental law or regulation, 3
such omission or action shall not be considered a 4
violation of such environmental law or regulation, or 5
subject such party to any requirement, civil or crimi-6
nal liability, or a citizen suit under such environ-7
mental law or regulation. 8
(4) E
XPIRATION AND RENEWAL OF WAIVERS .— 9
A waiver issued under this subsection shall expire 10
not later than 90 days after it is issued. The Admin-11
istrator may renew or reissue such waiver pursuant 12
to paragraphs (1) and (2) for subsequent periods, 13
not to exceed 90 days for each period, as the Admin-14
istrator determines necessary to meet the national 15
security or energy security needs described in para-16
graph (1) and serve the public interest. In renewing 17
or reissuing a waiver under this paragraph, the Ad-18
ministrator shall include in any such renewed or re-19
issued waiver such conditions as are necessary to 20
minimize any adverse environmental impacts to the 21
extent practicable. 22
(5) S
UBSEQUENT ACTION BY COURT .—If a 23
waiver issued under this subsection is subsequently 24
stayed, modified, or set aside by a court pursuant a 25
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provision of law, any omission or action previously 1
taken by a party under the waiver while the waiver 2
was in effect shall remain subject to paragraph (3). 3
(6) C
RITICAL ENERGY RESOURCE ; CRITICAL EN-4
ERGY RESOURCE FACILITY DEFINED .—The terms 5
‘‘critical energy resource’’ and ‘‘critical energy re-6
source facility’’ have the meanings given such terms 7
in section 3025(f) of the Solid Waste Disposal Act 8
(as added by this section). 9
(b) S
OLIDWASTEDISPOSALACTREQUIREMENTS.— 10
(1) H
AZARDOUS WASTE MANAGEMENT .—The 11
Solid Waste Disposal Act (42 U.S.C. 6901 et seq.) 12
is amended by inserting after section 3024 the fol-13
lowing: 14
‘‘SEC. 3025. WAIVERS FOR CRITICAL ENERGY RESOURCE 15
FACILITIES. 16
‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.—If the Administrator, in con-17
sultation with the Secretary of Energy, determines that, 18
by reason of a sudden increase in demand for, or a short-19
age of, a critical energy resource, or another cause, the 20
processing or refining of a critical energy resource at a 21
critical energy resource facility is necessary to meet the 22
national security or energy security needs of the United 23
States, then the Administrator may, with or without no-24
tice, hearing, or other report, issue a temporary waiver 25
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of any covered requirement with respect to such critical 1
energy resource facility that, in the judgment of the Ad-2
ministrator, will allow for such processing or refining at 3
such critical energy resource facility as necessary to best 4
meet such needs and serve the public interest. 5
‘‘(b) C
ONFLICTWITHOTHERENVIRONMENTAL 6
L
AWS.—The Administrator shall ensure that any waiver 7
of a covered requirement under this section, to the max-8
imum extent practicable, does not result in a conflict with 9
a requirement of any other applicable Federal, State, or 10
local environmental law or regulation and minimizes any 11
adverse environmental impacts. 12
‘‘(c) V
IOLATIONS OF OTHERENVIRONMENTAL 13
L
AWS.—To the extent any omission or action taken by 14
a party under a waiver issued under this section is in con-15
flict with any requirement of a Federal, State, or local 16
environmental law or regulation, such omission or action 17
shall not be considered a violation of such environmental 18
law or regulation, or subject such party to any require-19
ment, civil or criminal liability, or a citizen suit under such 20
environmental law or regulation. 21
‘‘(d) E
XPIRATION ANDRENEWAL OFWAIVERS.—A 22
waiver issued under this section shall expire not later than 23
90 days after it is issued. The Administrator may renew 24
or reissue such waiver pursuant to subsections (a) and (b) 25
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for subsequent periods, not to exceed 90 days for each pe-1
riod, as the Administrator determines necessary to meet 2
the national security or energy security needs described 3
in subsection (a) and serve the public interest. In renewing 4
or reissuing a waiver under this subsection, the Adminis-5
trator shall include in any such renewed or reissued waiver 6
such conditions as are necessary to minimize any adverse 7
environmental impacts to the extent practicable. 8
‘‘(e) S
UBSEQUENTACTION BYCOURT.—If a waiver 9
issued under this section is subsequently stayed, modified, 10
or set aside by a court pursuant a provision of law, any 11
omission or action previously taken by a party under the 12
waiver while the waiver was in effect shall remain subject 13
to subsection (c). 14
‘‘(f) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 15
‘‘(1) C
OVERED REQUIREMENT .—The term ‘cov-16
ered requirement’ means— 17
‘‘(A) any standard established under sec-18
tion 3002, 3003, or 3004; 19
‘‘(B) the permit requirement under section 20
3005; or 21
‘‘(C) any other requirement of this Act, as 22
the Administrator determines appropriate. 23
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‘‘(2) CRITICAL ENERGY RESOURCE .—The term 1
‘critical energy resource’ means, as determined by 2
the Secretary of Energy, any energy resource— 3
‘‘(A) that is essential to the energy sector 4
and energy systems of the United States; and 5
‘‘(B) the supply chain of which is vulner-6
able to disruption. 7
‘‘(3) C
RITICAL ENERGY RESOURCE FACILITY .— 8
The term ‘critical energy resource facility’ means a 9
facility that processes or refines a critical energy re-10
source.’’. 11
(2) T
ABLE OF CONTENTS .—The table of con-12
tents of the Solid Waste Disposal Act is amended by 13
inserting after the item relating to section 3024 the 14
following: 15
‘‘Sec. 3025. Waivers for critical energy resource facilities.’’.
Æ
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