[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 15739]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      PROTECTING THE PUBLIC HEALTH

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Connecticut (Mr. Courtney) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. COURTNEY. Mr. Speaker, going back to the days of Teddy Roosevelt, 
it has been a bipartisan principle that protecting the public health in 
America's environment is the sacred obligation of all of us who have 
the honor to serve this Nation in elective or appointed office. 
Unfortunately, the Administrator of the EPA, Mr. Scott Pruitt, didn't 
get that memo.
  Yesterday, Mr. Pruitt announced that he is precipitously going to 
strike down the Clean Power Plan rule sometime later today, which will 
turn the clock back in this country in terms of trying to get our arms 
around the issue of rising carbon emissions that scientists from across 
all sectors have universally recognized are causing rising sea 
temperature, rising sea levels, affecting climate, and clearly are 
linked to manmade carbon emissions that have been tracked for decades 
going back in time.
  Mr. Pruitt's argument is based on the discredited view that carbon 
pollution does not fall under the Clean Air Act, which is what the last 
administration was proceeding on when they actually designed the Clean 
Power Plan rule.
  The facts are these:
  In 1963, this Congress passed the Clean Air Act. It was signed into 
law by President Lyndon Johnson and has been amended a number of times 
on a bipartisan basis to strengthen and enhance the protections that 
were built into that law when it was, again, enacted many years ago. In 
fact, in 1990, George Herbert Walker Bush signed the last update and 
upgrade to the Clean Air Act, which is exactly what the prior 
administration was proceeding under when they designed the rule.
  The Supreme Court has weighed in on this question about whether or 
not greenhouse gases are covered under the Clean Air Act. In 2007, in 
Massachusetts v. EPA, a Republican-majority Court ruled in favor of the 
fact that greenhouse gases are in fact covered under the statutory 
umbrella of the Clean Air Act. This is what the Court said:

       Because greenhouse gases fit well within the Clean Air 
     Act's capacious definition of ``air pollutant,'' we hold that 
     EPA has the statutory authority to regulate the emission of 
     such gases.

  In 2014, the Court reenforced that ruling in a decision written by 
Antonin Scalia, the godfather of conservative lawyers all across this 
country, which reiterated the fact that greenhouse gases emitted from 
power plants are, in fact, subject to the scope and authority of the 
Clean Air Act.
  Unfortunately, today, the EPA Administrator is completely striking 
down that important advance in terms of protecting the public health of 
this country and putting nothing in place. There is no alternative that 
Mr. Pruitt is putting out there in terms of trying to get this country 
to move forward on clean power.
  It is unfortunate because, as the International Energy Agency 
announced this morning, for the first time ever, solar energy 
production now surpasses any other form of power production in the 
world. The same thing is happening here in the U.S. because of the 
renewable energy tax credits.
  In my State of Connecticut, renewable energy solar panel jobs far 
exceed any other power production job in the State. We are seeing an 
incredible proliferation of people installing panels on their homes and 
businesses.
  The U.S. Navy in Groton, Connecticut, now has solar panels on all 
Navy housing as well as a solar field to power the Nation's oldest 
submarine base, which is there.
  The decision by Mr. Pruitt is not a pro-growth, pro-economic 
decision. It is simply responding, unfortunately, to political forces 
that drove this administration to power from the fossil fuel industry.
  The only saving grace of Mr. Pruitt's order is that he allows a large 
and long public comment period for the people of this country who do 
care about clean air and who do care about our environment to weigh in 
on this reckless decision that turns the clock back for public health 
and safety and for our economy. That is where the growth is going to 
be, in renewables, and not power production of the past.
  It is not a war on coal. Coal production is not singled out in the 
Clean Power Plan regulations. But what it does say is that any plant, 
whether it is coal, natural gas, or solar panels, you have got to 
address the question of carbon emissions. You don't get to produce that 
power and then leave a mess behind you. That is a very simple principle 
that I think every American can understand.
  Unfortunately, it is about to be torpedoed by the EPA Administrator, 
who, by the way, was in the courtroom trying to argue against this in 
the courts back in 2014 and came out on the losing decision. I guess he 
got his revenge not just on the Court but, unfortunately, all of us who 
have to live with this terrible rule.
  Mr. Speaker, again, let's reverse that decision. Let's move toward 
the future with a type of power that will protect the environment and 
grow jobs.

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