The U.S. Department of Energy is calling out the Biden administration for risking national security as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing a ban on a chemical that helps detect weapons of mass destruction and conduct national defense research. According to The Washington Free Beacon, the EPA proposed a rule in April to ban the commercial use and production of methylene chloride. Although the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security gets exemptions, the Department of Energy does not despite its critical research in the detection of weapons of mass destruction.
In June, the Savannah River National Laboratory wrote a letter to the EPA arguing that their ban would risk national security due to limiting the work of the lab in regard to the detection of weapons. The letter stated that because of the ban “important DOE mission research purposes will be limited or non-existent.”
The Biden administration has come under scrutiny for banning and regulating essential items such as their efforts to effectively ban large portions of the gas stove and portable gas generator markets. Some are arguing that in the latest ban of the chemical essential to the Department of Energy’s national security research, the Biden administration has gone too far.
A bipartisan group including Sens. Joe Manchin (D., W.Va.), Shelley Moore Capito (R., W.Va.), and J.D. Vance (R., Ohio) expressed their concerns that the ban on methylene chloride would “hurt America’s military.” In a letter written in September, the senators argued “Methylene chloride is a critical compound either used in or used to manufacture products that we rely on every day, including military equipment,” adding that “While we wholeheartedly endorse commonsense regulation … we are apprehensive with EPA’s seemingly arbitrary evaluation that deems no level of risk acceptable for manufacturers.”