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“OPPOSING THE EPA'S FINAL NEW SOURCE REVIEW RULE” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Justice was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E1866 on Sept. 23, 2003.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
OPPOSING THE EPA'S FINAL NEW SOURCE REVIEW RULE
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HON. STEVEN R. ROTHMAN
of new jersey
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, September 23, 2003
Mr. ROTHMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong opposition to the EPA's recent decision to gut the Clean Air Act--landmark legislation that protects the public from deadly air toxins.
With one swift blow the Bush Administration has rolled back three decades of environmental protection by allowing some 20,000 of the oldest and dirtiest power plants, oil refineries, incinerators, chemical plants and industrial facilities that were exempted from the Clean Air Act to avoid installing the newest and best available pollution control technologies when they upgrade and modernize their facilities. It is a reckless act that will shower thousands of additional tons of smog and soot from dirty Midwest power plants onto the people and communities of New Jersey, endangering the public health most severely in densely-populated urban areas--such as those in my district--that already suffer the ill-effects of downwind industrial pollution.
The New Source Review program had been the linchpin of our nation's clean air laws. Since the late 1980's--during successive Republican and Democratic Administrations--the EPA and the Department of Justice teamed up to investigate and sue polluters who refused to install
``best-available'' pollution control technologies when they modernized their plants and increased emissions.
Some 540 ``grandfathered'' coal-fired power plants nationwide cause 98 percent of the soot emissions that lead to 30,000 premature deaths and 170,000 asthma attacks each year. Through the new source review process, DOJ has filed suit against 53 of these plants that are in violation of the Clean Air Act. Five of the 53 admitted wrongdoing and settled with the federal government--settlements that will result in 393,000 less tons of sulfur dioxide, 175,000 less tons of nitrogen dioxide, and 10.7 million less tons of carbon dioxide being released into the air we breathe each year. Despite this success, in issuing this new rule, the Administration has cast doubt on the pending cases while announcing that it will no longer pursue those polluters who have broken the law for years.
As a downwind state, New Jersey suffers disproportionately from power plants that refuse to clean up their act. New Jersey is hit by increased emissions in the form of acid rain and increased respiratory disorders. In fact, because of these out-of-state polluters, New Jersey has the worst air pollution and the sixth highest rate of asthma in the nation. The societal and economic costs of air pollution come in the form of missed school and work days, more emergency room visits, more heart attacks and strokes.
Unfortunately, this Administration has turned a blind eye to environmental science, the written comments of over 300,000 Americans who opposed the New Source Review rule, and the enforcement successes of the NSR program in favor of its corporate polluter friends. This is a travesty. And at the same time that the Administration is rewriting the Clean Air Act, it has set about dismantling the EPA's criminal enforcement division. The President's current EPA budget proposal would eliminate 126 EPA enforcement positions over the last three years--a 60 percent decline in civil enforcement and compliance monitoring. Further, a recent GAO report stated that EPA relied heavily on anecdotal evidence to build a case for the New Source Review rule--
something Jeffrey Holmstead, Assistant EPA Administrator for Air and Radiation, all but admitted in newspaper reports when he stated that the EPA ``wished it had better data.'' This perhaps explains why EPA tried to catch the American people off guard by signing the final rule two days before the traditional Labor Day holiday when many Americans were enjoying their last few days of summer rest with their families.
Mr. Speaker, I share the view of countless Americans and over 350 newspapers nationwide in calling the Bush Administration's actions an outrage and a devastating blow to public health. I urge all my colleagues in Congress--Republican and Democrat--to disapprove this rule and come together to craft new legislation that sets tough new standards for the dangerous toxic pollutants that will now cloud our air.
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