CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS
Nov. 7, 2011 – 10:57 p.m.
Senate to Vote on Bill That Would Void Air Pollution Rule
By Geof Koss, CQ Staff
Congressional frustration over EPA regulations will resurface in the Senate this week as Democrats and environmentalists look to fend off a long-shot procedural move aimed at blocking a recent rule to control cross-border air pollution.
While much of the legislative push-back against the EPA has come from the GOP-led House, the Senate is expected to vote Nov. 10 on a disapproval resolution (
The rule, finalized in July, is designed to control emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides in 28 states that are blamed for poor air quality in downwind Northeastern and mid-Atlantic states. It replaces a regulation promulgated by the George W. Bush administration that was ruled unlawful by a federal appeals court in 2008.
“They didn’t have to worry much about the health care consequences of their air pollution, but we did,” said Carper, who estimated that as much as 90 percent of the air pollution in the state he once governed originates elsewhere.
Heather Zichal, a top environmental adviser to President Obama, slammed the resolution.
“President Obama believes that American families should never be asked to choose between the health of their children and the health of the economy,” she wrote on the White House website Monday. “That is a false choice.”
As with many of the environmental regulations targeted by critics, the health benefits of the regulation far outweigh the cost to industry, the Obama administration says.
Citing EPA data, the Congressional Research Service says the rule will cost $2.4 billion annually when fully implemented, while providing between $120 billion and $280 billion in benefits each year. EPA estimates that the rule will prevent between 13,000 and 34,000 premature deaths annually, 400,000 cases of aggravated asthma and 19,000 hospital visits.
A Long Shot
Paul maintains that the rule is unnecessary.
“We want to make sure that everybody knows that we are in favor of clean environment and clean air, and that we think that the existing rules are working toward that,” he told reporters in September.
It is unclear whether Paul can muster the 51 votes needed to pass the resolution under the Congressional Review Act (PL 104-121), but opponents are not taking any chances.
Senate to Vote on Bill That Would Void Air Pollution Rule
More than a dozen major health groups cast the vote in stark terms in a letter to senators Monday. “We hope your constituents can count on you to protect their health in the face of efforts to block, delay and weaken these life-saving protections,” wrote the American Lung Association and other groups.
Paul’s gambit remains a long shot. Only one disapproval resolution — a 2001 measure (PL 107-5) signed by President George W. Bush overturning a Bill Clinton-era ergonomics rule — has been enacted since the Congressional Review Act became law in 1996.
And even if supporters are able to pass the disapproval resolution through both chambers, mustering the two-thirds majority needed to override a likely presidential veto seems an insurmountable hurdle.
In the meantime,
The pair’s legislation would delay and “synchronize” the implementation schedules so that power plants would have until Jan. 1, 2017, to either install emissions controls or retire their facility, according to Coats’ office.
Additionally,