Sierra Club Flickr Page
On Wednesday, June 22, the polluter-backed leadership of the U.S. Senate’s Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Clean Air and Nuclear Safety held a blatantly irresponsible hearing on weakening the Clean Air Act and the EPA’s ability to issue science-based clean air protections. The hearing was an attempt to piggyback on the U.S. House’s dangerous passage of the “Smoggy Skies Act” (H.R. 4775) two weeks ago by taking up a companion bill in the Subcommittee that would also put the health of hundreds of thousands of communities across the country at risk. This bill has little chance of becoming law and responsible members of the Senate stand against it.
The Senate’s companion bill to the “Smoggy Skies Act,” S. 2882, specifically targets protections against smog pollution, which were just strengthened last year by the EPA -- lowering the smog pollution standard from 75 parts per billion (ppb) to 70 ppb. This new standard, though not as strong as needed to fully protect public health, would protect millions of children and adults across the country from dangerous smog pollution. These protections are even more important during the summer, when spikes in air pollution lead to more frequent asthma attacks in children and health risks for the elderly. Additionally, smog pollution disproportionately affects low-income communities and communities of color. African American children have almost twice the rate of current asthma as white children, and are four times more likely to die because of it.
At the hearing, Dr. Mary B. Rice, MD, assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and a researcher on air pollution, explained that smog pollution not only makes those with asthma sicker but also decreases lung function in healthy adults. She argued that these findings are undisputed in the medical community and that it is crucial we act to defend the new life-saving, 70 ppb standard.
Despite this insistence from the medical community, Republican leadership at the hearing voiced support for the Senate’s version of the Smoggy Skies Act, which would significantly undermine the updated smog pollution standard by delaying its implementation and compliance timeline for eight years -- enabling corporations to pollute at higher levels and dismantle compliance requirements for the dirtiest areas. In addition to threatening federal protections against smog pollution, it would also permanently gut the heart of the Clean Air Act and stifle the development of all protections against air pollution -- not only for smog but also for carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and even toxic lead pollution.
The pro-Smoggy Skies Republicans tried to defend the bill by claiming that strong clean air protections are unachievable and overly burdensome, but expert witnesses quickly poked holes in their assumptions. Kurt Karperos, the deputy executive officer for the California Air Resources Board, for example, said that not only can states achieve the EPA’s new clean air protections, but they also can be used to boost the economy along the way. California, the state with the worst ozone problem in the country, took aggressive and efficient measures to solve the problem by supporting the EPA’s ozone standards -- recognizing that meeting the standards was a public health imperative.
California was able to reduce the number of areas exceeding the standard, while the population increased by roughly 25 percent and its GDP more than doubled. In fact, the state’s pursuit of responsible air quality has created a $6 billion air pollution control industry that employs 30,000 people, and a $27 billion clean energy sector that employs125,000 people. The EPA estimates that the new standard will save Californians $0.4 to 1.3 billion per year when accounting for reduced costs in meeting emissions and costs saved for healthcare.
Touting California as an example, Karperos not only showed that the new, stronger smog pollution standard would benefit America’s economy and public health but also highlighted how bad the Smoggy Skies Act and its Senate companion bill really are. They threaten the health of millions of Americans and contradict medical science, all so big polluters can make an extra buck on the backs of sick people. That’s why we will do everything we can to push responsible members of the Senate to kill this bill and protect our communities from air pollution.
-- Adrian Petrou, Legislative Intern at Sierra Club