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Coal Residuals Reuse and Management Act

Floor Speech

Date: Oct. 14, 2011
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Energy Environment

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Mr. ELLISON. I'd like to thank the ranking member of the Energy and Commerce Committee and the chair.

We're seeing a trend here in the House of Representatives, Madam Chair, attacking the EPA and not working on jobs. This bill does nothing to regulate coal ash in a way that protects the environment or public health. This bill wants to give regulatory power to States, but there is no national minimum standard for State permitting programs in this bill.

The municipal solid waste standards used by this dangerous piece of legislation are inadequate to protect our communities from dangerous toxins. Many of the toxins found in coal residuals are simply dangerous to public health and are known cancer-causing agents. Just a few of the toxins found in coal ash include arsenic, chromium, lead, mercury, nickel, and a bunch of other stuff that's hard to pronounce.

This bill will allow these toxins to enter our drinking water in dozens of communities across the country. On top of releasing toxins into our drinking water, H.R. 2273 does nothing to promote recycling of coal ash. Instead, it promotes the indefinite storage of coal ash, which furthers the leaching of dangerous carcinogens and neurotoxins into our drinking water. Additionally, this bill denies the EPA from instituting a deadline or meaningful cleanup standard for disposal sites that have already contaminated groundwater.

It has been 40 weeks the Republican majority in the House has been in the majority, and we haven't voted on a single jobs bill, Madam Chair. This train of bills dealing with cement emissions, dealing with the TRAIN Act, dealing with Boiler MACT rules--and now, today, coal ash--suggests that the Republican majority believes that the problem to creating jobs in America is that Americans want to breathe clean air and drink clean water, and it's just too expensive to do.

This is a false statement, this is not true, and I hope that we reject this bill today.

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