Satisfying Energy Needs and Saving the Environment Act

Floor Speech

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Ms. ADAMS. Mr. Speaker, I have a motion to recommit at the desk.

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Ms. ADAMS. Mr. Speaker, I am opposed to the bill in its current form.

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Ms. ADAMS. Mr. Speaker, this is the final amendment to the bill, which will not kill the bill or send it back to committee. If adopted, the bill will immediately proceed to final passage, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, my amendment is a critical improvement that would help protect American children in our most vulnerable communities.

This unnecessary bill would weaken both the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule and the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards by allowing waste coal plants to emit more sulfur dioxide. Health risks from exposure to sulfur dioxide can cause breathing problems, reduced lung function, and asthma exacerbations.

I think about the children in Mecklenburg County that I represent who are already suffering from high asthma rates. This bill would further put their health at risk as well as the communities both near waste coal plants and downwind.

Communities with limited resources and political clout are often low- income communities and communities of color. We must ensure, together, that these communities and their unique needs have a voice when it comes to environmental health policy so that we bolster their resilience and reduce the impacts of future disasters.

As representatives of the people, only negligence and apathy could lead us to ignore the risks that this bill poses to human health and the environment.

If my amendment passes, it would make sure that an increase in emissions will not harm brain development or cause learning disabilities in infants or children and will protect our Nation's sources of public drinking water from mercury pollution.

Research shows that babies and children who are exposed to mercury may suffer damage to their developing nervous systems, hurting their ability to think, to learn, and to speak.

Have we not been paying attention?

Just look at North Carolina. It took a disastrous spill of coal ash into the Dan River to make it clear that we were not doing a good enough job to protect our communities and our waterways.

Look at the children and the families in Flint who will never be the same because we failed to protect their basic human right of access to clean water.

How could this be a 21st century issue in America? And what has this body done to help?

Not much.

When will it stop?

Republicans and Democrats, alike, voted in 1990 to strengthen the Clean Air Act to require dozens of industry sectors to install modern pollution controls on their facilities. Since then, EPA has set emissions standards that simply require facilities to use pollution controls that others in their industry are already using. But a few major industrial sources so far have escaped regulation, and the Republicans appear to be on a mission to help them continue to evade emissions limits on toxic air pollution.

This bill is just another Republican handout: weakening the rule and allowing more toxic air pollution and more of these types of health hazards. It favors polluting industries at the expense of Americans and air quality.

Moreover, the bill sets a very dangerous precedent that could open the floodgates to other special treatment bills, creating loopholes and lax treatment that may cause additional health hazards that the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards now prevent. This bill is toxic, and it will be the knife in our children's back.

My amendment will improve the bill by putting the health and safety of our Nation's children first instead of allowing Republicans to continue their assault on the health of our Nation. I urge my colleagues to support it.

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Ms. ADAMS. Mr. Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.

A recorded vote was ordered.

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