Tag Archives: Congress
EPA to Unveil Stricter Rules for Power Plants
More than 20 years ago, Congress ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate toxic air pollution. It’s done that for most industries, but not the biggest polluters — coal and oil-burning power plants. Those upwind power plants are in other states, and that’s why it’s so important for the EPA this time to adopt strong nationwide rules with tough deadlines, despite all the political pressure it’s under not to do so. Continue reading
Is the EPA Really a ‘Jobs Killer’?
Industry-paid studies often include questionable assumptions and economic models not validated by broad peer review. Jobs could also be created, not just destroyed, by regulation. The EPA’s rules are required to undergo a transparent cost-benefit analysis that is peer reviewed by others. The idea that environmental regulations would wipe out an industry or have a serious impact is implausible. Early estimates of cleanup costs are invariably wildly overstated. Continue reading
Too Dirty to Fail? House Republicans’ Assault on our Environmental Laws Must be Stopped
No credible economist links our current economic crisis — or any economic crisis — to tough clean-air and clean-water standards. Our environment affects red states and blue states alike. It is time for House Republicans to stop politicizing our air and water. Let’s end “too dirty to fail.” Continue reading
Administrator Lisa P. Jackson, Testimony Before the U.S. House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations
The Clean Air Act is one of the most successful environmental laws in American history. It is misleading to say that enforcement of our nation’s environmental laws is bad for the economy and employment. It isn’t. Continue reading
Telling the Truth About the Environment and Our Economy
Misleading claims are translating into actions that could dismantle clean air standards that protect our families from mercury, arsenic, smog and carbon dioxide. All of this is happening despite the evidence of history, despite the evidence of Congress’ own objective Research Service, and despite the need for job creation strategies that go well beyond simply undermining protections for our health, our families and our communities. Continue reading
Why Anti-Science Ideology is Bad for America
Sadly and with few brave exceptions, some politicians are active and aggressive at using false, misleading, or discredited science, or explicitly ignoring good science, in setting public policy to support ideology. History tells us this never leads to a good outcome. Continue reading
Coal Ash: Ask the Kansas Congressional Delegation to Put People Ahead of Polluters
Topic: Congressional vote on HR 2273 and the House Appropriations Bill for the Department of the Interior, legislation that would block attempts to regulate coal combustion waste disposal, protect polluters, and put Americans at significant risk from hazardous pollution. Action: … Continue reading
America Needs a New Vision
By Teryn Norris for Americans for Energy Leadership Just three short years after Barack Obama’s campaign, “No We Can’t” is the new “Yes We Can,” and the vision of hope and unity that re-inspired a generation has been shattered. In … Continue reading
Some in Congress Ready to Battle EPA
By Ken Silverstein for EnergyBiz Congress is on respite. But the Environmental Protection Agency is on guard. Even before the contentious debt deal the regulatory body has been on the defensive and trying to fend off attacks from industry and … Continue reading
Concealed Weapons Against the Environment
By Robert B. Semple, Jr. for The New York Times While almost no one was looking, House Republicans embarked last week on a broad assault on the nation’s environmental laws, using as their weapon the 2012 spending bill for the … Continue reading
