3% Withholding Repeal and Job Creation Act

Floor Speech

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Mrs. SHAHEEN. Mr. President, I rise this evening to join my colleague from Rhode Island and those who have come to the floor throughout the day today, to join them in strong opposition to the efforts by Senator Paul to nullify the Environmental Protection Agency's cross-State air pollution rule.

As we have heard on the floor, his resolution would strip the EPA of its authority to protect our air from certain kinds of air pollution emitted by powerplants. That rule was put in place specifically to protect downwind States, such as New Hampshire and those of us in the Northeast and on the east coast, from air pollution that originates from outside our borders. I am particularly concerned by the attempts to stop these protections because in New Hampshire we have been fighting for them for over a decade, and they are long overdue.

Clean air is a bipartisan matter for us in New Hampshire. As my friend and colleague Senator Ayotte noted on the floor last night:

In New Hampshire, we have a long, bipartisan tradition of working to advance commonsense, balanced environmental protections.

I couldn't agree with her more. She and I know that even if we eliminated all local sources of air pollution from within New Hampshire's borders, we would still have counties in the State with unacceptably high levels of pollution. That is because of the overwhelming pollution that comes into New Hampshire and the Northeast on air currents from the Midwest.

In the Northeast, we are considered the tailpipe for the rest of the country. That is why, in 1997, when I was Governor, New Hampshire joined with seven other Northeast States to demand that the EPA begin cracking down on this transported air pollution. When New Hampshire joined that effort in 1997, this is what I said about it:

When you climb Mount Washington in New Hampshire and see smog that is blown in from the Midwest, it's clearly time for a national crackdown on air pollution ..... it's time to address the major sources of a pollution that is fouling our air and affecting the health of our people. We've done our part in New Hampshire to cut down on emissions, and it's time for the EPA to get tough on major polluters upwind.

I have here a picture of the White Mountains, which is where Mount Washington is. That is the highest point in New Hampshire and, actually, in the whole Northeast. What this picture shows very clearly is the impact of this air pollution that is coming in from upwind.

We can see these are the White Mountains. On a clear day, you can see a beautiful blue sky, green trees, beautiful landscape. On a hazy day, this is the impact of that smog. It looks as if somebody took a gray paintbrush and painted over the White Mountains in New Hampshire.

It is really unbelievable to me that we are here, 14 years after this action was brought in 1997, still debating transported air pollution. The time for debate is over. The air quality improvements from this rule will benefit over 289,000 children who are at risk for asthma in New Hampshire. New Hampshire has one of the highest rates of childhood asthma in the country. In my State alone, air pollution is estimated to cost businesses more than 17,000 lost days of work annually due to health problems. Yet we are still hearing the same old arguments that forcing polluters to clean up will hurt the economy, will hurt our businesses. No. In fact, we have lots of research that shows that is not true.

Talking points about job-killing regulations ignore the fact that a recent economic analysis by the Political Economy Research Institute found that the EPA's cross-State air pollution rule and the proposed mercury rule will create 290,000 jobs per year over the next 5 years in important sectors of our economy such as construction, craft labor, and industrial manufacturing. Companies such as ThermoFischer Scientific, which has a plant in Newington, NH, is a leading manufacturer of environmental monitoring equipment and a great example that good policy creates jobs right here in the United States.

By reducing air pollution, these protections are estimated to provide about $640 million in benefits to the New Hampshire economy alone. Nationwide, the health and environmental benefits are estimated at $120 billion to $280 billion each year. That is because when air pollution comes across our State borders, it is our New Hampshire companies that are forced to make up the difference. Without these rules, we have an unfair system where the burden of keeping our air clean falls disproportionately on downwind States such as New Hampshire.

Higher air pollution costs our businesses through the loss of worker productivity and greater medical expenses, and it also affects our critical tourism industry in New Hampshire which depends on the clean air of the White Mountains and the health of our beautiful lakes and forests and streams. In New Hampshire, this tourism industry and the outdoor recreation economy, much like in Colorado where the Presiding Officer is from, supports 53,000 jobs, generates $260 million per year in sales taxes, and accounts for 8 percent of our State's gross domestic product. Transported air pollution has a direct impact on this industry, as we can see so clearly in this photograph, and on the quality of life of New Hampshire's 1.3 million citizens. It is time for the EPA to move forward with their cross-State air pollution rules.

I urge all of my colleagues in the Senate to reject this resolution by Senator Paul and to protect the health and welfare of all of the citizens in this country.

Mr. President, I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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