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

Floor Speech

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Mr. MARKEY. I thank the gentleman for yielding.

I rise in opposition to the Republican TRAIN Act, the Total Regulatory Amnesty for Industry Negligence Act of 2011.

The very silly premise of this bill is that it's simply impossible to keep our air clean and still keep our economic engine chugging along. This Republican-led House has initiated a full-throttle ``repeal-a-thon.'' It's a three-part strategy: one, deny the science; two, delay the regulations; three, deter efforts to protect the health and security of millions of Americans.

We keep hearing from Republicans about how EPA's clean air standards to reduce mercury, lead, dioxins, and other pollutants need to be economically analyzed and reanalyzed. They insist that, even if a standard for one toxic chemical was met by an entire industrial sector, the removal of just one more poisonous chemical would cause a domino effect of problems for industry.

And the solution to these supposed problems? It is a time-tested Republican tradition.

First, pass legislation that repeals regulations that have already been set. Two, require endless study of the cumulative effects of all regulations of all industries. Finally, just for good measure, pass an amendment that guts the very underpinnings of the Clean Air Act.

Make no mistake, that is what we are doing here today.

Our planet is warming and extreme weather is increasing. We're having record 100-year floods every few years. Hurricanes have caused floods, massive power outages, and deaths. Texas was on fire this summer after having the warmest summer ever recorded by any State. The President has issued disaster declarations in 48 States so far this year. We have set an all-time high of 83 major disasters declared in 2011. We've already had 10 weather events causing $1 billion or more in damages--another record--and we still have 3 months of the year left to go.

And what do Republicans propose?

Rather than saving money by cutting the hundreds of billions we spent on unneeded Cold War-era nuclear weapons, the Tea Party chooses to cut funds that would reduce our dependency on foreign oil. Rather than cutting the tens of billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies we give to Big Oil and Big Coal, the Republicans gut programs that would manufacture energy-efficient cars in America and provide clean air. Republicans would have us pay for the costs of weather disasters caused by global warming by cutting funding for a program that actually reduces the very threat of global warming.

For all the talk of this so-called ``TRAIN wreck of cumulative EPA regulations,'' there seems to be one cumulative effect that isn't getting mentioned by the Republicans: the cumulative effect of all of their goals on the health of Americans. That is because the Republicans, perhaps, are spending so much time doing the bidding of those corporations that they have lost their train of thought.

If the regulation to remove mercury from cement plants--already 13 years overdue--is delayed for even one more year, up to 2,500 people will prematurely die. There will be 17,000 cases of aggravated asthma, and 1,500 people will suffer heart attacks. If the regulation to remove mercury, lead, and cancer-causing toxins from incinerators and industrial boilers--already 11 years overdue--is delayed for one more year, there will be 6,600 people who will prematurely die because of that.

Additionally, if this bill passes, it would repeal mercury and Cross-State Air Pollution Rules for power plants, resulting in the loss of 25,000 more lives and more than 11,000 heart attacks. And that's just with 1 year of delay.

So what's the cumulative impact of just 1 year of delay on each of these regulations? Thirty-four thousand people will die and many more will be injured.

In discussing these Republican efforts, today, Lisa Jackson, EPA Administrator, testified before our committee that, ``If we could reduce particulate matter to healthy levels, it would have the same impact as finding the cure for cancer in our country.'' The difference is we already know how to reduce particulate matter. We don't know how to cure cancer.

The Republicans are providing the American people with a false choice. We do not have to choose between air quality and air-conditioning. We do not have to choose between manufacturing and mercury poisoning. We do not have to choose between clean air and cancer. Ending protections for clean air and clean water should be a third rail issue, but the Republican Tea Party express has veered far off onto the right track.

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Mr. MARKEY. I thank the gentleman.

Sadly, these are the kinds of anti-innovation, anti-science, anti-public health schemes the public has come to fear from this legislative wrecking crew.

When the Republicans beckon you to come ``all aboard'' on the TRAIN Act, I urge you to run in the opposite direction, because the only train Republicans seem to care about is the Big Oil and big coal gravy train, and that's pulling out of the station here tonight as the Republicans push this bill through the Congress

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