[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 51 (Tuesday, April 20, 2004)]
[House]
[Pages H2170-H2172]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
UNHAPPY EARTH DAY FOR EPA
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the
gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Tierney) is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. TIERNEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise to mention another mistake that
President Bush has made: His mistake in forgetting that protecting our
environment is a bipartisan effort that for 30 years has put people
over polluters and public health over profits.
President Bush forgot that both Earth Day and the Environmental
Protection Agency were born in 1970, created from the bipartisan
resolve to clean up and protect our environment. As we prepare to mark
Earth Day on April 22, the unhappy consequences of the President's
mistakes are clear. The Bush administration is undermining EPA's years
of hard-won achievements in carrying out and enforcing our Nation's
bipartisan environmental laws.
EPA's mission is to protect human health and safeguard the natural
environment, air, water and land. The Bush administration is retreating
from EPA's mission and instead making politically driven decisions that
benefit polluters at the expense of the American public. At a time when
we should be strengthening our environmental protections, the Bush
administration has taken steps to weaken our environmental protections
and the enforcement of our existing environmental laws.
[[Page H2171]]
Rolling back bipartisan environmental protection is President Bush's
mistake, but it is not an accident. There is a deliberate, systematic
three-step plan from this administration.
Step one is to try to pass weak environmental legislation. Step two
is to seek to weaken Agency regulations. And if all else fails, step
three is to cut the enforcement budget to disable Agency compliance
efforts.
A quick review of the administration's failures to clean up air
pollution highlight the trends. EPA should be taking action to clean up
mercury pollution from power plants, but the Bush administration has
failed to take that action. Mercury pollution has poisoned the fish in
millions of acres of our lakes and thousands of miles of our streams.
And according to EPA scientists, approximately 630,000 infants are born
in the United States each year with blood mercury levels at an unsafe
level.
As required by the Clean Air Act in December of 2000, EPA determined
that it was appropriate and necessary to regulate mercury emissions
from power plants, the single largest source of mercury in the United
States. But in December of 2003, when the Bush administration's EPA
released its proposal for controlling mercury, it was shockingly
inadequate. The Clean Air Act requires a much larger reduction in
mercury pollution in much less time than the Bush EPA proposal.
Tellingly the Bush proposal is exactly what the power industry
wanted. In fact, parts of the administration's mercury proposal were
literally copied from memos prepared by industry lobbyists. Last
month's Los Angeles Times article revealed that EPA staff were not told
to perform studies on the costs and public health benefits of more
stringent mercury reduction proposals, even though such studies were
requested by the expert panel tasked with recommending an appropriate
regulation. Also shocking is that the White House apparently made
considerable changes to the EPA's mercury proposal before its release,
minimizing the health risk of mercury exposure.
In addition, the Bush administration has failed to require power
plants to install modern pollution controls. In August 2003, the Bush
EPA finalized a rule that significantly weakens the Clean Air Act by
allowing thousands of old power plants to make upgrades to their plants
without installing pollution controls. If EPA's rule stands up to
current legal challenges, these power plants and factories will be
allowed to continue to pollute the air with no responsibility for the
resulting damage to the American people. According to technical studies
using EPA models, the result will be at least 4,300 premature deaths
and at least 80,000 asthma attacks each year that could otherwise be
prevented by simply requiring modern pollution controls.
EPA should be taking action to address global warming, but the Bush
administration has refused to address this important issue. A report by
the U.S. National Research Council commissioned by the Bush
administration confirmed that greenhouse gases are increasing the
temperatures of the Earth's air and oceans primarily caused by human
activity. There is overwhelming evidence that greenhouse gases must be
reduced in order to slow global warming, yet in March 2001, the Bush
administration refused to take any responsibility for reducing global
warming when it rejected the Kyoto Protocol.
The administration then announced last summer that EPA does not have
the authority to regulate carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases,
reversing a Bush campaign promise and a legal opinion issued by the EPA
general counsel under the Clinton administration. Rather than taking
real action, the Bush administration's answer to air pollution has been
to introduce the so-called Clear Skies Initiative, which environmental
experts say would actually result in weaker standards for controlling
pollution from power plants than existing laws being enforced.
The administration's failure to enforce environmental law extends
beyond the Clean Air Act. The EPA's own research shows that polluters
are egregiously violating the Clean Water Act. According to EPA data,
60 percent of large facilities across the country exceeded their Clean
Water Act permit at least once between January of 2002 and June of
2003. Large facilities that exceed their permits are dumping on average
six times more pollution into our waterways than they are allowed. In
spite of these facts, EPA's enforcements of the Clean Water Act are
declining.
Mr. Speaker, we must take action to clean up our air and water
pollution and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The EPA must be
empowered and provided the resources to carry out its mission. And this
is one mistake that the Bush administration must correct, if not for
ourselves, but for future generations who deserve the opportunity to
look back on Earth Day 2004 from the perspective of a cleaner and
stronger environment.
Both Earth Day and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) were
born in 1970, created from the need to clean up and protect our
environment. While Earth Day draws public awareness, EPA is the federal
agency ultimately responsible for the day-to-day protection of our
environment. On this Earth Day, I think it fitting to examine the way
the Bush Administration is undermining EPA's years of hard-won
achievements in carrying out and enforcing our nation's bipartisan
environmental laws.
EPA's mission is to, ``protect human health and safeguard the natural
environment-air, water, and land . . .'' The Bush Administration is
retreating from EPA's mission and instead making politically driven
decisions that benefit polluters at the expense of the American public.
At a time when we should be strengthening our environmental
protections, the Bush Administration has taken steps to weaken our
environmental protections and the enforcement of our existing
environmental laws.
There seems to be a three-step plan from this Administration: try to
pass weak environmental legislation, seek to weaken agency regulations
and if all else fails, cut the enforcement budget to disable agency
compliance efforts.
A quick review of the Administration's failure to clean up air
pollution highlights the trend.
EPA should be taking action to clean up mercury pollution from power
plants, but the Bush Administration has failed to do so. Mercury
pollution has poisoned the fish in millions of acres of our lakes and
thousands of miles of our streams. According to EPA scientists,
approximately 630,000 infants are born in the United States each year
with blood mercury levels at an unsafe level.
As required by the Clean Air Act, in December 2000, EPA determined
that it was appropriate and necessary to regulate mercury emissions
from power plants, the single largest source of mercury in the United
States. In December 2003, when EPA released its proposal for
controlling mercury, it was shockingly inadequate. The Clean Air Act
requires a much larger reduction in mercury pollution, in much less
time, than EPA's proposal.
Tellingly, this proposal is exactly what the power industry wanted.
In fact, parts of the Administration's mercury proposal were literally
copied from memos prepared by industry lobbyists. Last month's Los
Angeles Times article revealed that EPA staff were told not to perform
studies on the costs and public health benefits of more stringent
mercury reduction proposals even though such studies were requested by
the expert panel tasked with recommending an appropriate regulation.
Also shocking is that the White House apparently made considerable
changes to EPA's mercury proposal before its release, minimizing the
health risks of mercury exposure.
In addition, the Bush Administration has failed to require power
plants to install modern pollution controls. In August 2003, EPA
finalized a rule that significantly weakens the Clean Air Act by
allowing thousands of old power plants to make upgrades to their plants
without installing pollution controls. If EPA's rule stands up to
current legal challenges, these power plants and factories will be
allowed to continue polluting the air with no responsibility for the
resulting damage to the American people. According to technical studies
using EPA models, the result will be at least 4,300 premature deaths
and at least 80,000 asthma attacks each year that could otherwise be
prevented by simply requiring modern pollution controls.
EPA should be taking action to address global warming but the Bush
Administration has refused to address this important issue. A report by
the U.S. National Research Council, commissioned by the Bush
Administration, confirmed that greenhouse gases are increasing the
temperatures of the earth's air and oceans, primarily caused by human
activity. There is overwhelming evidence that greenhouse gases must be
reduced in order to slow global warming.
Yet, in March 2001, the Bush Administration refused to take any
responsibility for reducing global warming when it rejected the Kyoto
Protocol. The Administration then announced
[[Page H2172]]
last summer that EPA does not have the authority to regulate carbon
dioxide and other greenhouse gases, reversing a Bush campaign promise
and a legal opinion issued by the EPA General Counsel under the Clinton
Administration.
Rather than taking real action, the Bush Administration's answer to
air pollution has been to introduce its so-called ``Clear Skies''
initiative, which environmental experts say would actually result in
weaker standards for controlling pollution from power plants than fully
enforcing existing law.
Bruce Buckheit, former Director of EPA's Air Enforcement Division,
states he is, ``deeply troubled by the current state of federal
environmental enforcement,'' and noted the program is now ``on life
support.''
``Commencing with the creation of the Office of Enforcement and
Compliance in 1994 and accelerating in the 1996-2000 timeframe,'' Mr.
Buckheit said, ``EPA was building a robust enforcement program that
targeted and prosecuted the most serious environmental scofflaws. . . .
These violations involved significant unlawful emissions with
identifiable adverse health impacts. Appropriate resolution of these
violations would result in a reduction in national pollution levels--
not by a few tons--but by several million tons per year and save
thousands of lives each year.''
``We were embarked on a vigorous program that was beginning to show
results,'' Mr. Buckheit said. ``Within 90 days of the departure of the
prior Administration, the Bush Administration began transmitting a
clear message to industry that there was a new Sheriff in town--a
Sheriff that did not intend to prosecute these kinds of cases.''
The Administration's failure to enforce environmental laws extends
beyond the Clean Air Act. EPA's own research shows that polluters are
egregiously violating the Clean Water Act. According to EPA data, 60
percent of large facilities across the country exceeded their Clean
Water Act permit at least once between January of 2002 and June of
2003. Large facilities that exceed their permits are dumping, on
average, six times more pollution into our waterways than what they are
allowed. In spite of these facts, EPA's enforcement of the Clean Water
Act is declining.
For fiscal year 2005, the Administration proposes cutting EPA's
overall budget by $606 million. This will result in over 2,600 fewer
inspections for violations of the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and
other environmental laws than were conducted in fiscal year 2000.
I commend EPA's dedicated professionals who have, through hard work,
made significant progress in cleaning up air and water pollution.
Unfortunately, I believe the Bush Administration is undermining the
ability of EPA staff to do their jobs effectively. As Mr. Buckheit
notes,EPA employees are ready and willing to enforce the law but ``the
White House will not tolerate more than tokenism when it comes to
environmental law enforcement.''
The Bush Administration continues to put the interests of polluters
first, undercutting EPA's tools for protecting our air, water, and
land. The federal government owes a responsibility to all Americans to
strengthen, not weaken, our environment. We must take action to clean
up air and water pollution and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. EPA
must be empowered--and provided the resources--to carry out is mission.
Future generation deserve the opportunity to look back at Earth Day
2004 from the perspective of a cleaner and stronger environment.
____________________