Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. Chairman, my amendment would not allow any funds to enforce section 435 of this bill, which is another harmful policy rider that limits the ability of our environmental agencies to take action to improve public health and fight the root causes of climate change.

This section blocks the EPA's ongoing efforts to regulate hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, which is the wrong approach. HFCs are factory-made gases used in air conditioning and refrigeration and are up to 10,000 times more potent than carbon dioxide. This potency has led to HFCs being referred to as a superpollutant. Unless we act now, United States emissions are expected to double by 2020 and triple by 2030.

While not as abundant as carbon dioxide, superpollutants, also known as short-lived climate pollutants--including HFCs, methane, and black carbon--have contributed up to 40 percent of observed global warming.

By limiting the EPA's authority under the Clean Water Act to propose, finalize, or enforce any regulation or guidance regarding HFCs, we undercut their ability to protect public health and demonstrate American leadership in emission reductions.

The EPA's Significant New Alternatives Policy Program, or SNAP, requires us to evaluate substitutes for superpollutants like HFCs that are harming public health and our environment. Through SNAP, we can ensure a more smooth transition to safer alternatives for our country's industrial sector.

Within the last week, EPA finalized a new rule on HFCs that the Environmental Investigation Agency estimates will avoid superpollutant emissions equal to the annual greenhouse gas emissions of more than 21 million cars by 2030. It will allow heavy users of HFCs, including supermarkets, which are the largest source of HFC emissions, to continue developing cleaner alternatives.

As we continue international negotiations to phase down HFCs, the United States should be a leader in reducing the use of HFCs and other superpollutants. The standard set by EPA will drive U.S. and international innovation and market development of low-emission and energy-efficient refrigeration, air conditioning, foam-blowing agents, and aerosol technologies.

These innovations will actually get at one of the root causes of climate change before we are forced to react to increasingly extreme weather and sea level rise.

American industry has already begun creating alternatives that both have a lower emissions profile and are more energy efficient than current HFCs, and last September, we saw major companies--including Coca-Cola, Carrier, DuPont, Honeywell, PepsiCo, and other industry leaders--commit to voluntarily reducing harmful HFC emissions.

My amendment simply bars funding to enforce section 435 of this bill so we can instead continue with existing rules and move our country's global leadership in finding innovative solutions to reducing emissions forward. We should not be handcuffing the important work being done at EPA to reduce superpollutants.

I ask my colleagues to support the amendment, and I reserve the balance of my time.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. Chairman, I appreciate very much the constructive comments by my colleague, the gentleman from California. I would just suggest this is not the way to deal with these issues, but rather to address them via policy approach.

Section 435 of this bill will just take out the legs from all work we would do on HFCs and superpollutants, and it is just too broad a brush to paint with.

I urge a ``yes'' vote on this amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source