Amanda Dumville

October 21, 2011

On October 13, 2011, the House of Representatives voted to pass H.R. 2250 and gift the industries the ability to burn industrial wastes in dirty, uncontrolled facilities causing mercury and other toxic air pollutants to poison our environment while simultaneously impeding the public health initiatives of the Clean Air Act.The bill provides a legislative stay of four Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rules, "Boiler MACT rules", which govern mercury emissions and other hazardous air pollutants from about 200,000 boilers and incinerators nationwide. Furthermore, H.R. 2250 will replace the Boiler MACT rules and require the EPA to promulgate new regulations for the boilers and industrial waste incinerators.

This bill, in essence, exempts these boilers and incinerators from the Clean Air Act's pollution control requirements. Not only will this bill allow companies to burn tires and plastics and use chemicals, solvents, and other industrial wastes without attempts to control the toxic air pollution, but the bill deprives people of the ability to know what toxic pollutants are released into the air by the boilers and incinerators.

This bill will have a devastating effect on public health throughout the nation. While some people refer to the EPA as a "job-killing" agency due to the Clean Air Act regulations, the EPA takes the position that Americans should not have to choose between a job and healthy air. Proponents of H.R. 2250 argue that they are supporting the economy by abolishing the "job-killing" regulations. However, the Harvard economist, Dale Jorgenson, conducted a study, cited by the EPA in the legislative hearing, demonstrating that the "implementing the Clean Air Act actually increased the size of the US economy because of the lower demand for health care and healthier, more productive workforce." This study also concluded that by 2030, "the Clean Air Act will have prevented 3.3 million word days lost and avoided the cost of 20,000 hospitalizations every year."

According to the National Resource Defense Council, this legislation not only undermines the EPA's attempts to provide cleaner and safer air to breathe, but it also will have a significant and direct effect on Americans' quality of life and life expectancy. The legislation will delay current compliance deadlines for industry by a minimum of 3.5 years which will result in up to 22,750 premature deaths, 14,000 non-fatal heart attacks, 143,000 asthma attacks, and over one million days when people miss work or school. The pollution control standards that the House rescinded would have saved between 2,500 and 6,500 lives every year.

To conclude, this piece of legislation has distressing national implications in terms of public health and will actually have a negative effect on the economy from the increased health care costs.

Sources:

John Walke, Why Do Some in Congress Want to Allow More Mercury Pollution, Asthma Attacks and Premature Deaths?, Natural Resource Defense Council (June 27, 2011), http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/jwalke/why_do_some_in_congress_want_t.html.

Legislative Hearing On H.R 2250, the EPA Regulatory Relief Act of 2011, and H.R. 2681,

the Cement Sector Regulatory Relief Act of 2011 Before the Subcomm. on Energy and Power

Comm. on Energy and Commerce, 112th Congress, 1st Session (2011) (statement of Regina McCarthy, Assistant Administrator for Air and Radiation, U.S. Environmental Protection Agecny).

Sam Edmondson, House Again Votes to Increase Mercury Pollution, Premature Death and Disease, Earthjustice (October 13, 2011), http://earthjustice.org/news/press/2011/house-again-votes-to-increase-mercury-pollution-premature-death-and-disease.

Legislative Digest for H.R. 2250
112th Congress, 1st Session(2011), http://www.gop.gov/bill/112/1/hr2250