[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1257 Introduced in House (IH)]






109th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1257

To amend the Clean Air Act to authorize critical use exemption amounts 
 for methy bromide as identified by the United States State Department 
          for the years 2006 and 2007, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 10, 2005

Mr. Radanovich (for himself, Mr. Blunt, Mr. Cardoza, Mr. Whitfield, Mr. 
 Shimkus, Mr. Herger, Mr. Foley, Mr. Kingston, Mr. Issa, Mrs. Emerson, 
     Mr. Berry, Mr. Bishop of Georgia, Mr. Simpson, Mr. Otter, Mr. 
   Doolittle, Mr. Costa, Mr. Pombo, and Mr. Jones of North Carolina) 
 introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
                          Energy and Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the Clean Air Act to authorize critical use exemption amounts 
 for methy bromide as identified by the United States State Department 
          for the years 2006 and 2007, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds that--
            (1) methyl bromide is a highly effective fumigant used to 
        control insects, nematodes, weeds, and pathogens in more than 
        100 crops in domestic agriculture, in forest and ornamental 
        nurseries, and in wood products;
            (2) the United States Department of Agriculture has spent 
        well over $100,000,000 attempting to find effective 
        alternatives to methyl bromide yet there are still many 
        domestic agriculture uses with no alternatives;
            (3) the critical use exemption of the Montreal Protocol 
        allows for the use of ozone depleting substances beyond the 
        phase-out date if there are no technically and economically 
        feasible alternatives or substitutes available and the lack of 
        such options would result in a significant market disruption;
            (4) accordingly, in 2001, the United States Environmental 
        Protection Agency and the United States Department of 
        Agriculture began the process under the Montreal Protocol to 
        document the amount of methyl bromide needed for critical uses 
        in domestic agriculture;
            (5) the United States Environmental Protection Agency 
        assembled more than 45 Ph.D.s and other qualified reviewers 
        with expertise in both biological and economic issues to review 
        applications for methyl bromide critical use exemptions;
            (6) rigorous review by the United States Environmental 
        Protection Agency of the critical use applications reduced by 
        22 percent the amount of methyl bromide initially requested by 
        agricultural sectors; and
            (7) as confirmed by the Parties to the Montreal Protocol in 
        the ``Report of the Sixteenth Meeting of the Parties to the 
        Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer'', 
        the concept of ``availability'' in the context of the critical 
        use exemptions shall be primarily guided by the alternative's 
        market presence in sufficient quantities and accessibility, 
        taking into account, among other things, regulatory 
        constraints;
            (8) after extensive research and technical review, the 
        United States State Department and the United States 
        Environmental Protection Agency have concluded that the 
        critical use methyl bromide that has been requested qualifies 
        as ``critical'' since it has been determined that for each use 
        the lack of availability of methyl bromide for that use would 
        result in a significant market disruption;
            (9) after extensive research and technical review, the 
        United States State Department and the United States 
        Environmental Protection Agency have concluded that there are 
        no technically and economically feasible alternatives or 
        substitutes available that are acceptable from the standpoint 
        of the environment and health and that are suitable to the 
        crops and circumstances for the critical use methyl bromide 
        that has been requested in the nomination;
            (10) the conclusions of the United States State Department 
        and the United States Environmental Protection Agency are 
        consistent with the restatement adopted at the Sixteenth 
        Meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol of the criteria 
        that should be used to approve critical use requests;
            (11) the United States 2006 CUE request represents 
        approximately .4 percent of the ozone depletion potential from 
        all ozone depleting substances in all countries when the 
        Montreal Protocol was negotiated in 1987;
            (12) therefore, given the statistically minor impact on the 
        ozone layer and the lack of suitable feasible alternatives for 
        all uses at this time, legislation is needed in order to ensure 
        a reasonable transition for United States agriculture to the 
        complete phase-out of methyl bromide, legislation is necessary 
        to authorize the critical use exemption amounts identified by 
        the State Department for the year 2006, as reflected in the 
        Report of the Sixteenth Meeting of the Parties to the Montreal 
        Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, Decision 
        XVI/2, Critical Use Exemptions Annex, Section IIA, IIB, and 
        Section III, and for the year 2007, as reflected in the Report 
        of the First Extraordinary Meeting of the Parties to the 
        Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, 
        Annex III.

SEC. 2. CRITICAL USE EXEMPTIONS FOR METHYL BROMIDE.

    Section 604(d)(6) of the Clean Air Act (42 U.S.C. 7671c(d)(6)) is 
amended by inserting the following at the end thereof: ``For the year 
2006, the United States critical use exemption shall be the sum of the 
amounts identified in Decision XVI/2, Annex (Critical Use Exemptions), 
Section IIA and Section III of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol as 
set forth in Table I and, for the year 2007, the amount identified in 
submissions of the United States State Department at the first 
Extraordinary Meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol as set 
forth in Table I. The United States critical use exemptions for the 
years 2006 and 2007 established by this section shall not be subject to 
the conflict provision of section 614(b) of this Act. The Administrator 
shall issue a final rule within 90 days of the enactment of this 
sentence to authorize critical-use exemptions of the amounts listed in 
Table 1 below and to allocate these amounts for critical-use exemptions 
for each of the years 2006 and 2007.


                        ``Critical Use Exemptions
------------------------------------------------------------------------
       Critical Use Exemption 2006:         Critical Use Exemption 2007:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The amount approved by the Parties to the   The amount submitted for the
 Montreal Protocol (6897.68 tonnes)          year 2007 by the U.S. State
 recorded in Decision XVI, Annex (Critical   Department at the first
 Use Exemptions), Section IIA, and the       Extraordinary Meeting of
 amount approved in the interim by the       the Parties to the Montreal
 Parties to the Montreal Protocol            Protocol (8425 tonnes)
 (2194.583 tonnes) recorded in the           recorded in the Report of
 Sixteenth Meeting of the Parties to the     the First Extraordinary
 Montreal Protocol on Substances that        Meeting of the Parties to
 Deplete the Ozone Layer, Critical Use       the Montreal Protocol on
 Exemptions Annex, Section III, for a        Substances that Deplete the
 total of 9092.263 tonnes                    Ozone Layer, Annex III,
                                             Appendix I)''.
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