Can Congress stop this?
Would Congress stop this?
They won’t. They freaking won’t!
Time to install that alternative electrical system. You are going to need it. And no you cannot run an extension cord to ours. :-)
Yes. They can revoke the EPA's statutory authority to impose these regulations.
However, they won't be able to do so without a President that will sign the bill, unless they can override his veto.
Obama just handed the Republicans another campaign issue. It remains to be seen whether they will take advantage of it.
At one time, I was very interested in using the political process to slow down, or even to do away with, the EPA.
It's a long story, but basically I think the answer is "no", there's nothing Congress can do unless it repeals or amends 10-12 large environmental "laws" that were written and passed in the period 1955-1972.
The EPA was not created by Congress, and since the President must "take care that the laws be faithfully executed", if the EPA ceased to exist tomorrow, most of its crimes would be ordered by environmentalist wackos in the Departments of the Interior, Agriculture, Labor, Health & Human Services, and Energy.
Although the EPA is a problem, the existence of "laws" like the Clean Air Act, the Water Quality Act, the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, and the Wilderness Act is a much bigger one. These "laws" virtually mandate an ever-expanding scheme of regulation and de-industrialization.
The reason I call them "laws" is that, although they took the form of bills passed by both Houses and signed by Presidents, Congress had no authority to pass them in the first place AND, unlike real laws, they do not tell citizens what they may and may not do, how their behavior is to be evaluated, and what may happen if they are convicted of a violation by a legal and constitutional court.