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IIRC the Executive gets to do this because the EPA is part of the executive branch. Can congress setup an agency that is outside of the control of the executiv

• CWuestefeld 7y ago
  The EPA implements the regulations as described by Congress. Right now, Congress has been very fuzzy about specifics, leaving it to the Executive to fill in the details. Phrased differently, Congress has explicitly given the EPA (under the direction of the President!) a great deal of latitude, and Presidents are using that latitude in both directions. But if Congress has set it up that way, we shouldn't be surprised that this is what happens. The correct fix is to get Congress to provide clearer specs. I suspect that the reason they don't, is that when they're less specific, they are less vulnerable to scrutiny by any given demographic. If they just say "we did something", then maybe both the Sierra Club and the farmers will be happy. But the more specific they are, the more it's going to piss off one or more blocks of voters. So they punt, abdicating their powers. And the result is that things can change as the wind blows. We should not be vesting so much power in the President.