EPA Regulatory Relief Act of 2011

Floor Speech

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

Ms. CASTOR of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of the Waxman amendment and in opposition to this GOP bill.

Mr. Chairman, all Americans should be concerned with the GOP push to roll back America's fundamental environmental protections and health protections. This GOP bill strikes at the heart of American values. We are not a smoggy, Third World country. This is the United States of America; and over the past decades since the passage of the Clean Air Act, businesses have flourished and the air and water has gotten cleaner. These are not mutually exclusive.

That's why this GOP bill takes a step backward. It fundamentally weakens the Clean Air Act and grants unnecessary breaks to toxic air polluters.

Now, Mr. Waxman's amendment is very important because it targets one of the most dangerous and toxic neurotoxins, that is, mercury. We know that babies born to women exposed to mercury during pregnancy can suffer from a range of developmental and neurological problems, including delays in speaking and difficulties learning.

Children suffering from the chronic effects of mercury exposure may never reach their full potential. This clearly has a profound impact on the affected children and their families, but it also has a long-term societal impact.

It was in 1990 when the Congress, in a bipartisan fashion, amended the Clean Air Act and targeted the particular, the specific, polluters coming from specific sources. These specific polluters, some of them created jobs, acted to bring in modern technology, the scrubbers. They took the mercury out of the air. There are many examples in my home State of Florida of these manufacturing plants and utilities that have taken the mercury out of the air by installing the up-to-date modern equipment.

But there have been some businesses that have been very resistant to this, and they need to get with the program because it has been since 1990 when the law has said it's time to clean it up.

Now what year is this? This is 2011. Now, I would offer that after 20 years, these businesses have been on notice that they can use the American know-how and modern technology to clean up their plants, just like a lot of their other competitors have done.

Now, I've heard the argument that, boy, this is bad for business. But I'll tell you, coming from the State of Florida, clean air and clean water are good for business. Our tourism industry relies on clean water and clean air. And for the plants in the State of Florida that have cleaned up, it has really improved the commercial fishing industry, the recreational fishing industry, billion-dollar industries in my State. If they had not--if the Congress had not acted in a bipartisan way decades ago to say we're going to clean up the air and the water, I don't think we'd have as many visitors coming to my beautiful State for their vacations and fishing.

And fishing is important because we have so many that go out in the Gulf of Mexico or the Atlantic or out in the Keys and they fish and they bring it home to eat. Now, because mercury is not cleaned up to the greatest extent that we can clean it up, the Florida Department of Health has advised here, and I'm reading from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection Advisory: ``The Florida Department of Health has advised the public to limit their consumption of fish from hundreds of waterbodies throughout the State due to unacceptable risk of mercury exposure. As a result, these waterbodies have been listed as `impaired' for mercury.'' This doesn't mean it's unsafe. But it means that you can't go overboard.

But you know what? We have the technology to continue to clean up so that people can eat all the great Florida seafood that is available to them. There is no reason to take a step backward. Other businesses have done this. They have cleaned up.

So earlier this year, after a decade of analysis and work by the EPA and interaction with businesses and other stakeholders all across the country, the EPA finalized standards to cut emissions of mercury and other toxic air pollution from these particular polluters. Their goal was to finally put these rules into effect this coming April. But, unfortunately, we're running into opposition from the most anti-environmental Congress in history.

People, this amendment is straightforward. It states that the bill does not stop EPA from taking action to clean up toxic air pollution from these particular sites. If that facility is emitting mercury or other toxic pollutants, we're not going to proceed. I urge my colleagues to support the amendment.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Source