The House of Representatives will soon vote on a bill that critics have decried as a reckless broadside on the planet, and a gift to Corporate America.
Legislation that would amend the Clean Air Act and delay ozone rules issued by the Obama administration will go before the House Rules Committee on Monday evening, setting the stage for floor consideration shortly thereafter.
The bill has 24 cosponsors—mostly Republicans—and is backed by corporate lobbyists and the energy industry, including the American Petroleum Institute and the Chamber of Commerce.
Exxon, Chevron and BP are among the oil companies that have lobbied Congress on the bill, HR 806.
Democrats have decried the proposal as “an irresponsible compilation of attacks that in reality strikes directly at the heart of the [Clean Air Act].”
“This bill would undermine decades of progress on cleaning up air pollution and protecting public health from all criteria pollutants—not just ozone,” they said. “It would cause irreparable harm to public health and the environment.”
Particularly of concern to Democrats: legislative language that would push back “by up to eight years” the deadline for implementing standards on ozone emissions issued in 2015 by the Environmental Protection Agency.
Those rules, which were already characterized as glaringly insufficient by environmental advocates, lowered allowed ozone emissions to 70 parts per billion, from 75 parts per billion–the benchmark set by the Bush administration in 2008.
The legislation set to be advanced this week would also alter the Clean Air Act to take into account companies’ bottom lines when adhering to rules on ozone emissions.
“Considerations of cost and technological feasibility are–and should remain–separate from the identification of the appropriate standard to ensure the air we breathe is safe,” dissenting Democrats said.
They noted that such considerations “as well as other non-risk factors” are already weighed by the EPA when drafting air quality rules.
The agency is currently tasked with reviewing those rules every five years. If the legislation before the House Rules Committee on Monday becomes law, EPA-mandated reviews will only occur once per decade.
