Lower Energy Costs Act
Floor Speech
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Ms. DEAN of Pennsylvania. Madam Chair, I rise in opposition to H.R. 1, the polluters over people act.
Environmental protection and smart regulation, alongside responsible businesses and every single one of us, will save our planet for the next generation, for my four grandchildren, and for your grandchildren.
When my granddaughter, Aubrey, was only 5 years old, she attended an issues conference with a national candidate who asked Aubrey what she cared about. Aubrey responded, ``Trash on the playground. How do we fix that?'' a simple yet important question.
One of our most basic jobs is to protect our natural resources, protect this global playground, and regulate companies to ensure that they are not able to abuse and pollute our planet.
The deregulation that H.R. 1 allows will pollute our planet and harm health. This legislation guts critical investments in climate change, balloons the deficit, and rolls back key environmental standards, all while failing to address energy costs for Pennsylvania's families.
They are trying to do this at the same time we are seeing some consequences of deregulation right in Pennsylvania, leading to environmental disasters that could poison American families, like the derailment of the train and environmental disaster in East Palestine, Ohio, affecting, of course, Pennsylvania's Pittsburgh suburbs, and, most recently, the pollution of water in Philadelphia.
It seems we need more regulation, not less.
Madam Chair, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle either forget or simply do not know that it was a Republican President, Richard Nixon, who, in 1970, proposed the Environmental Protection Agency, and it began operation that same year.
In the early 1970s, Pennsylvania passed a brilliant constitutional amendment, article I, section 27, which says Pennsylvanians are guaranteed the right to clean air and clean water and to the protection of our natural aesthetics for generations to come. This beautiful amendment is a reminder to all of us that we should not pass H.R. 1.
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