[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 107 (Friday, June 29, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1463]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, ENVIRONMENT, AND RELATED AGENCIES 
                        APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2008

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                               speech of

                            HON. GENE GREEN

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 26, 2007

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 2643) making 
     appropriations for the Department of the Interior, 
     Environment, and related agencies for the fiscal year ending 
     September 30 2008:

  Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas. Mr. Chairman, the report accompanying H.R. 
2643 urges the Environmental Protection Agency to study the health and 
environmental effects of using trona in air pollution control systems. 
Trona is a naturally occurring, non-toxic mineral widely used in food 
additives, in glass manufacturing, paper, laundry products and 
medicine. It is odorless, non-combustible and stable in the air. Trona 
is a key ingredient of baking soda. In the United States, the Green 
River Basin of Wyoming is home to the world's largest deposit of this 
incredibly useful mineral, and the Wyoming trona industry alone 
produces close to 20 million tons of trona and employs more than 2,000 
people every year.
  For almost 20 years, trona has also played a critical and growing 
role in air pollution control at coal-fired power plants, cement 
plants, municipal incinerators and similar facilities around the 
country, including Alaska, Colorado, Florida, Virginia and Washington. 
Texas-based Solvay Chemicals, Inc. pioneered the use of trona in air 
pollution control systems, and it is the only company in the United 
States that produces trona products for that purpose.
  Trona works in air pollution control systems, and it works well. The 
EPA, which has repeatedly approved the use of trona in air pollution 
control systems since 1989, reports that those systems have actually 
reduced sulfur dioxide emissions by more than 85 percent and 
hydrochloric acid emissions by 95 percent at several power plants 
around the country, without increasing particulate matter emissions.

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