[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 64 (Friday, April 20, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Page S4813]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. CASEY:
  S. 1179. A bill to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to extend 
the financing for Superfund for purposes of cleanup activities with 
respect to those Superfund sites for which removal and remedial action 
is estimated to cost more than $50,000,000, and for other purposes; to 
the Committee on Finance.
  Mr. CASEY. Mr. President, this Sunday we will celebrate Earth Day, a 
day when we should reaffirm our commitment to a clean, safe, and 
healthy environment for our children and future generations.
  We have made a considerable amount of progress since Senator Gaylord 
Nelson established the first Earth Day thirty-seven years ago. We 
implemented the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act, both landmark 
bills that have made our beautiful country a cleaner place to live. We 
no longer have rivers so massively polluted they actually catch fire 
and burn. We no longer have unchecked amounts of toxic pollutants being 
pumped into the air we breathe. We should be proud of these 
accomplishments because they show us that we can pass meaningful and 
effective laws to protect the environment and public health without 
sacrificing our economy and economic productivity.
  We still have serious threats to the safety and health of our 
environment. Obviously global climate change tops that list of threats. 
No other single issue has the potential to devastate our future and 
change the entire world so completely. We have an opportunity, if we 
get smart and take serious actions, to stop the cataclysmic changes 
that are just around the corner for this planet. The time to act is 
now. And I mean right now. Every year that we delay enacting a strong 
bill that forces us to make mandatory reductions to our carbon 
emissions the cost goes up. We simply cannot afford to wait. We cannot 
afford the cost of tackling an ever increasing carbon problem in future 
years. And we certainly cannot afford the long-term implications of 
climate change like rising sea levels that will displace large centers 
of population, droughts that will dramatically reduce fresh drinking 
water, and major storms like those that have hit the Gulf Coast and 
Atlantic seaboard over the past few years.
  Climate change is certainly the most pressing environmental issue 
facing us today. But we should not forget about other important issues 
facing our constituents. Reducing mercury and other air pollutants, 
reducing pollution of our rivers and streams, preserving open space and 
stopping urban sprawl, increasing investments in renewable and 
alternative energy sources, establishing higher fuel efficiency 
standards, and reducing the number of unremediated Superfund sites 
continue to be top priorities for me.
  For this reason and in honor of Earth Day, today I am introducing the 
Superfund Equity and Megasite Remediation Act of 2007. This legislation 
reinstates the polluter-pays tax that funds clean up of Superfund 
sites. In addition, my bill ramps up the tax for limited 5-year period 
in order to create a fund to clean up megasites, which cost more than 
$50 million each to remediate.
  I know that Senator Boxer, the Chairman of the Environment and Public 
Works Committee, has been a long-time advocate for reinstating the 
polluter-pays principle in federal hazardous waste cleanup law. I look 
forward to working with her and all of my colleagues on the Environment 
Committee and the Finance Committee to make sure that we have a 
Superfund program that cleans up the polluted sites that blight our 
communities and prevent development and reuse, and does so in a way 
that polluters foot the bill, and not taxpayers. I urge all of my 
colleagues to join me in support of this bill, and do the right thing 
for our local towns on Earth Day.
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