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Dirty Air

Floor Speech

Date: March 10, 2011
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Energy Environment

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to Chairman Upton's dirty air act.

In 2007, the Supreme Court issued the Massachusetts v. EPA decision, directing the EPA to examine greenhouse gas emissions and their impact on the public health. EPA conducted a highly credible, peer-reviewed scientific analysis under the Bush EPA and the Obama EPA, both concluding that greenhouse gases harm our health.

This was not a political analysis; it was a scientific analysis. But that has not stopped the chairman from trying to legislatively undermine scientific fact. According to the EPA, President Nixon's Clean Air Act will prevent 230,000 premature deaths and result in $2 trillion in economic benefits in 2020.

But, Chairman Upton has decided, with much help from corporate polluters' lobbyists, that the fiscal and physical well-being of the American people are less important than Big Oil's importance and Big Oil's billion dollar bottom line next quarter.

The bottom line for America is that undermining EPA science will cost trillions.


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