Ozone Standards Implementation Act of 2016
Floor Speech
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Mr. POLIS. Mr. Chairman, since this bill is supposed to be about making the Clean Air Act work better, I have offered an amendment--that is identical to a bill with 64 cosponsors that I coauthored--to close a very glaring loophole in the law that frankly harms the air in my State, across the Mountain West, and indeed across the country.
My amendment, which is based off legislation I first introduced in 2011 and have introduced three times, including this Congress, is called the BREATHE Act. Essentially it is very simple. It would close the oil and gas industry's loophole to the Clean Air Act's aggregation requirement. Currently, oil and gas operators are exempt from the aggregation requirements in the Clean Air Act.
What the aggregation requirement does, it is small air pollution sources that cumulatively release as much air pollution as a major source, are supposed to be required to curb pollution by installing the maximum achievable control technology. But oil and gas is exempt, not for any policy reason, but simply because oil and gas has a lot of influence here in Washington, D.C.
This directly affects the air quality in my district. Take a county like Weld County, Colorado. There are over 20,000 operating fracking wells. Any one of those has a very small emissions profile. But in the aggregate, when you start talking about 1,000, 5,000, 10,000, it looks a lot more like multiple emissions-spewing factories or other highly pollutive activity. And yet they are completely exempt from being aggregated.
So essentially, they are rounded to down to zero, each one of them, which is fine if there is one or three or five of them. But if you have 20,000 of them, it is a gross abuse of the intent of the Clean Air Act to round it down to zero.
My amendment would also add hydrogen sulfide to the Clean Air Act's Federal list of hazardous air pollutants. It was originally on the list. Unfortunately, it was later removed.
The Clean Air Act currently exempts hydrogen sulfide from the Federal list of hazardous air pollutants, even though it is well-documented that hydrogen sulfide has been associated with a wide range of health issues, such as nausea, vomiting, headaches, irritation of eyes, nose, throat, and asthma.
Often, it is released from wellheads, pumps, and piping during the separation process, from storage tanks, and from flaring. In fact, 15 percent to 25 percent of the natural gas wells in the U.S. emit hydrogen sulfide, even though, I would point out, control technologies are inexpensive and readily available to curb hydrogen sulfide emissions. All we ask is that those are looked at as part of that.
My amendment has broad support with 64 Members that have added their names as cosponsors. I am grateful this was allowed under the bill.
My amendment will simply hold oil and gas operators accountable for their impact on our Nation's air quality, as every industry should be. They shouldn't play by special rules. They should play by the same rules under the Clean Air Act as every industry.
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Mr. POLIS. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
So again, with great respect to the gentleman from Kentucky, this is the first opportunity we have had since I first introduced the bill in 2011 where the Clean Air Act has been brought to the floor and opened and allowed to have this amendment and discussion. I personally would have been thrilled if we would have been able to have a hearing in the intervening years. Of course, should this not prevail, I would be happy to continue to work to pursue a hearing in this area.
Because frankly, again, when you have 20,000 wells in a limited area, you can't round each one down to zero. Separately, we have the issue of hydrogen sulfide. Both are very important issues. Of course, we want to further the discussion.
I personally am thrilled again on behalf of the 64 Members that are already cosponsors of this bill that at least we have the time to debate this on the floor in a way that it is germane to a bill that we are considering in opening up the Clean Air Act.
Certainly I am appreciative of the process the committee has in place. Again, should this not prevail, I would be happy to continue to work with the committee to help deal with these small-site aggregations in a way where they are no longer rounded down to zero if, in fact, they are found scientifically to have a tangible cumulative effect, just like we have the aggregation of every other type of industrial activity except for those that are particular to oil and gas.
I would encourage my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on the bill to simply make sure that oil and gas operators play by the same rules with regard to their impact on air quality as any other industry, as well as adding hydrogen sulfide to the list of hazardous air pollutants and listing, of course, oil and gas wells as one of the major sources of hydrogen sulfide, as they certainly are in my neck of the woods.
I ask my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on the amendment.
I yield back the balance of my time.
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Mr. POLIS. Mr. Chairman, I demand a recorded vote.
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