Sen. Richard Burr's legislation has the backing of 15 Republican co-sponsors. GOP bill would merge EPA, DOE

Senate Republicans are pushing a plan to morph the Energy Department and the EPA into one giant agency.

A bill introduced Thursday by Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C) would combine the DOE and the EPA into a new agency called the Department of Energy and Environment. Burr’s effort has the backing of 15 GOP co-sponsors.


Consolidating the agencies could result in more than $3 billion in savings in 2012 alone, according to a statement from Burr’s office. The super-agency would retain the core functions of the DOE and the EPA but would cut ineffective or redundant programs, the statement said.

The new department would include an undersecretary for nuclear security to oversee the weapons and nonproliferation programs that now fall under the DOE, according to the bill.

The effort may also be an attempt by the GOP to rein in the EPA, which many Republicans accuse of pursuing too many costly environmental rules under the Obama administration.

“The amount of money wasted annually on duplicative programs within the federal government is staggering,” Burr said. “This common sense approach will reduce duplicative and wasteful functions across these two agencies and streamline our approach to a comprehensive, coordinated energy and environmental policy.”

This article first appeared on POLITICO Pro at 5:55 p.m. on May 5, 2011.