Yesterday, the House passed the bill Ozone Standards Implementation Act, a bill to gut environmental regulations.
Here’s what the bill would do:
On Oct. 1, 2015, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a final rule to strengthen the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for ground-level ozone to 70 parts per billion (ppb), based on extensive scientific evidence about ozone’s effects on public health and welfare. The bill would extend for eight years EPA’s deadline for implementing the NAAQS EPA’s National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). Changing the deadline from 2017 to 2025 would put people at risk, especially the elderly, and those with asthma, which disproportionately are children from lower-income and minority communities. H.R. 4775 also changes the frequency with which EPA must conduct reviews of the NAAQS for air pollutants from five years to ten years. Currently, under the Clean Air Act, the EPA is required to review the most up to date science and medical information on air pollutants every five years to ensure that the public is protected with the most up to date scientific advancements and understanding of air pollution.
Lastly, the bill creates loopholes for achieving compliance with a particular ozone standard. H.R. 4775 would exempt areas with the worst air quality from establishing contingency measures if they fail to make progress toward achieving the ozone standard. Also, it expands the definition of “exceptional events” that could exempt states from meeting these standards by including high temperatures and drought. Regardless of high temperatures and droughts, the American people need to be assured they are breathing in quality air and are not being subjected carelessly to harmful pollutants.
It passed 234 to 177.
7 Democrats voted for it, and 10 Republicans voted against it.
Here are the 7 Democrats:
Brad Ashford (NE-02)
Sanford Bishop (GA-02)
Jim Costa (CA-16)
Henry Cuellar (TX-28)
Ann Kirkpatrick (AZ-01)
Collin Peterson (MN-07)
Terri Sewell (AL-07)
Here are the 10 Republicans:
Carlos Curbelo (FL-26)
Bob Dold (IL-10)
Chris Gibson (NY-19)
Frank LoBiondo (NJ-02)
Bruce Poliquin (ME-02)
Dave Reichert (WA-08)
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (FL-27)
Mark Sanford (SC-01)
Chris Smith (NJ-04)
Elise Stefanik (NY-21)
The House also voted on a series of amendments.
Ed Whitfield (KY-01) offered an amendment to provide that no additional funds are authorized to be appropriated to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the bill, and requires the agency to carry out the bill’s provisions with existing funds.
It passed 236 to 170.
Two Democrats voted for it: Sanford Bishop (GA-02) and Kyrsten Sinema (AZ-09).
Bobby Rush (IL-01) offered an amendment to allow a federal, state, local, or tribal permitting agency to opt-out of section 3 (d) of the bill if the agency determines that issuing the bill’s requirements for issuing a preconstruction permit will: increase air pollution, slow permitting, increase regulatory uncertainty, foster litigation, shift the burden of pollution control from new pollution sources to existing sources, or increase the overall cost of achieving a new or revised national ambient air quality standard within their jurisdiction.
It failed 171 to 235.
2 Republicans—Curbelo and Gibson—voted for it.
6 Democrats voted against it:
Sanford Bishop (GA-02)
Jim Costa (CA-16)
Henry Cuellar (TX-28)
John Garamendi (CA-03)
Collin Peterson (MN-07)
Kurt Schrader (OR-05)
Frank Pallone (NJ-06) offered an amendment to strike the underlying bill’s requirement that EPA must consider the “technological feasibility” of controlling a pollutant when setting national ambient air quality standards and retains the current law requirement that such standards be set to protect public health.
It failed 169 to 242.
2 Republicans—Curbelo and Ros-Lehtinen—voted for it.
8 Democrats voted against it:
Brad Ashford (NE-02)
Sanford Bishop (GA-02)
Jim Costa (CA-16)
Henry Cuellar (TX-28)
Scott Peters (CA-52)
Collin Peterson (MN-07)
Terri Sewell (AL-07)
Kyrsten Sinema (AZ-09)
Jared Polis (CO-02) offered an amendment to amend the Clean Air Act to repeal the current prohibition against aggregating pollution emissions from oil or natural gas exploration and production wells and pipelines carrying those fossil fuel products to determine if they are a major source of air pollution, and to require the EPA to issue a rule adding hydrogen sulfide to the list of hazardous air pollutants.
It failed 160 to 251.
14 Democrats joined all Republicans in attendance in voting against it:
Brad Ashford (NE-02)
Sanford Bishop (GA-02)
Andre Carson (IN-07)
Jim Costa (CA-16)
Henry Cuellar (TX-28)
Gene Green (TX-29)
Carolyn Maloney (NY-12)
Collin Peterson (MN-07)
Cedric Richmond (LA-02)
Kurt Schrader (OR-05)
Terri Sewell (AL-07)
Bennie Thompson (MS-02)
Juan Vargas (CA-51)
Filemon Vela (TX-34)
Eleanor Holmes Norton (DC) offered an amendment to provide that the provisions of the bill would not apply if the EPA Administrator, in consultation with the existing Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee, finds that the application of any section could harm human health or the environment.
It failed 171 to 239.
One Republican—Dave Reichert (WA-08)—voted for it.
6 Democrats voted against it:
Sanford Bishop (GA-02)
Jim Costa (CA-16)
Henry Cuellar (TX-28)
Collin Peterson (MN-07)
Kyrsten Sinema (AZ-09)