Transparency in Regulatory Analysis of Impacts on the Nation Act of 2011

Floor Speech

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Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. I thank the gentleman for yielding.

The majority's assault on clean air continues and has culminated into what my friend and colleague, Mr. Waxman, has rightly referred to as Dirty Air Week.

The effort to further delay EPA from protecting our air would damage our environment and the health of our citizens. Today, 60 percent of Americans live in areas where air pollution has reached unhealthy levels. The health care costs associated with air pollution are estimated at over $100 billion annually. But these statistics would be even worse without the protections of the Clean Air Act. According to the American Lung Association, Clean Air Act regulations prevented over 160,000 premature deaths in 2010.

Over the past 20 years, the EPA estimates that the Clean Air Act prevented 21,000 cases of heart disease, 672,000 cases of chronic bronchitis, 843,000 asthma attacks, and 18 million child respiratory illnesses.

Yet today we consider a bill the Natural Resource's Defense Council has deemed the deadliest bill on the Republican agenda. The goal of the TRAIN Act is to undermine EPA's ability to protect our citizens from dangerous toxins through the dismantling of the Mercury and Air Toxics and Cross-State air pollution standards.

As a mother and a grandmother, I have been a long-time advocate of clean air practices, especially with regard to mercury.

Mercury threatens public health, but is particularly dangerous to pregnant women and children. Overexposure to mercury inhibits a developing child's ability to walk, talk, read, write, and comprehend and is one of the most dangerous unregulated toxins, which is why I led legislation in the last Congress to curb mercury emissions from various facilities.

In my home State of Illinois, coal-fired power plants emitted almost 5,000 pounds of mercury into the atmosphere in 2009, making Illinois the seventh most mercury-polluted State in the Nation. But while Illinois has taken steps to reduce mercury contamination, air pollution doesn't stop at State borders. Federal standards are needed to ensure that every State makes a good-faith effort to protect its residents.

The Mercury and Air Toxics Standards will prevent 4,500 cases of acute bronchitis and 6,800 premature deaths. And the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule will prevent 400,000 cases of aggravated asthma and 34,000 deaths per year.

My colleagues across the aisle claim to be in the business of eliminating burdens. But by my math, every year these regulations are delayed, over 40,000 preventable deaths will occur. And as much as Republican opponents to the EPA would like to disagree, these rules, like the previous Clean Air Act regulations, will grow our economy.

Earlier this year, the Political Economy Research Institute concluded that the Cross-State and Mercury and Air Toxics rules will drive investments that could create 300,000 new jobs annually. The Mercury and Toxics Air Standard alone is expected to generate $7 billion in annual GDP growth. The numbers are clearly in favor of the Clean Air Act and I reject the Republican idea that Americans need to choose between jobs and health. The proven good news is that we can do both.

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