[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 88 (Thursday, June 27, 2002)]
[House]
[Page H4074]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         PROTECTING AIR QUALITY

  (Mr. PRICE of North Carolina asked and was given permission to 
address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PRICE of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I am proud to inform 
colleagues that North Carolina has become the first southern State to 
impose tough new pollution standards on aging coal-fired power plants.
  This bipartisan legislation is an initiative of Governor Mike Easley, 
with the collaboration of industry and of environmental and public 
health advocates. It requires plants to reduce their sulfur dioxide and 
nitrogen oxide emissions by 74 and 78 percent, respectively. These 
standards will improve the quality of life for North Carolinians, and 
they will save lives by reducing the incidence and severity of 
respiratory illness.
  Ironically, as North Carolina takes steps to improve air quality, the 
Bush administration has proposed a major step backward, actually 
weakening the Clean Air Act. The EPA's proposed loosening of ``new 
source review'' regulations would allow thousands of the country's 
biggest polluters to avoid installing pollution-control equipment as 
they update and modernize their plants. So even though North Carolina 
will be doing its part to reduce pollution that causes ozone and acid 
rain, our State will continue to be stricken by pollution from other 
States.
  North Carolina has taken a significant step, Mr. Speaker. I am 
hopeful that this will stiffen EPA's spine, to give all Americans the 
protection they need.

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