Eliminating the Redundant Environmental Rules Review Committee

House bill 4826 eliminated the Environmental Rules Review Committee (ERRC) within the Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act (NREPA) and the Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE). House bills 4824-4825 amend other Acts that reference the now-eliminated Environmental Rules Review Committee. The now-amended statute allowed appointed individuals to subvert the executive rule-making authority embodied in EGLE and inappropriately undermine the consensus of staff scientists and subject matter experts as an unnecessary and ineffective layer of checks and balances.

The ERRC was created to oversee all rulemaking designated under EGLE and had the authority to review draft rules and oversee the process. This oversight was a time-consuming process, which slowed the bureaucratic rulemaking process. The ERRC was made up of 12 members, including multiple representatives of industries regulated by EGLE: oil and gas, solid waste, and manufacturing. With only seven votes needed to amend or reject a rule, the ERRC empowered polluting industries to benefit from the environmental rule-making process by which they were supposed to be regulated.