Energy Tax Prevention Act of 2011

Floor Speech

The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 910) to amend the Clean Air Act to prohibit the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency from promulgating any regulation concerning, taking action relating to, or taking into consideration the emission of a greenhouse gas to address climate change, and for other purposes:

Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Chair, over forty years after the passage of the Clean Air Act, there are apparently still Members of this House who think you can't have jobs unless you have a polluted environment. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Over the past 40 years, the Clean Air Act has reduced smog-producing sulfur dioxide and particulate pollution by 60% while our economy has nearly tripled. Since the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, electricity production has increased and prices have remained stable. A rigorous, peer-reviewed analysis of the Benefits and Costs of the Clean Air Act from 1990-2020 conducted by the EPA found that air quality improvements under the Clean Air Act will save $2 trillion and prevent at least 230,000 deaths annually.

The record is clear: a healthy environment and a strong economy are not mutually exclusive. They go hand in hand. Which is why this attempt to gut the Clean Air Act by preventing EPA from regulating carbon pollution is so misplaced. Given our 40-year history with the Clean Air Act, the last thing Americans want is a bunch of politicians substituting their own ideological agenda for sound science and telling EPA it can't do its job.

I urge a no vote.

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