The House Energy and Commerce Committee on Wednesday easily passed the Boiler MACT bill (H.R. 2250). The bill would force EPA to delay final rules for industrial boilers and commercial and industrial solid waste (not MSW) incinerators by 15 months and would extend the three-year compliance deadlines to at least five years. The bills would also force the EPA to adopt the “least burdensome” rules available under the law. The committee approved a Republican amendment to impose a binding 15-month deadline for the EPA to finish the boiler MACT standards. The bill was passed with a vote of 36-14. The committee discarded a couple of Democratic amendments, including one that would have allowed EPA to continue to use the pollutant-by-pollutant approach. The GOP-led bills are most likely headed for a floor vote the week of Oct. 3 and are predestined to pass in the Republican-controlled House. Like much of the House-led agenda attacking EPA rules, the boiler and cement bills are likely to meet a dead end in the Senate, barring any agreement on a broad omnibus spending bill or other must-pass measure. Twenty-five of the 124 co-sponsors on Griffith’s boiler bill (H.R. 2250) are Democrats.