Electricity Security and Affordability Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Chair, I rise in opposition to H.R. 3826, which would short-circuit an ongoing process to engage stakeholders and develop reasonable, effective controls on carbon pollution from power plants.

This pollution poses a serious threat to public health. According to the American Public Health Association, about half of the U.S. population lives in areas where air pollution is linked to illness, including asthma, heart attacks, lung cancer, and stroke. Moreover, an overwhelming majority of climate scientists agree that carbon pollution is linked to climate change, causing sea-level rise and more extreme weather events across the globe. That is why the Supreme Court has confirmed that the Environmental Protection Agency has the authority under the Clean Air Act to address carbon pollution and safeguard our health and natural resources.

Power plants are the largest source of carbon pollution in the United States, but their carbon emissions are completely unregulated. Currently, the Environmental Protection Agency is engaged with stakeholders to develop a rule for emissions for new power plants, and they plan to address existing power plants as well. These rules would use available technologies for carbon capture and sequestration.

Today's legislation would halt that process. It leaves pollution controls on new power plants to the discretion of the plants themselves, which are unlikely to take action unless an industry-wide standard is in place. And it effectively repeals the Environmental Protection Agency's authority to limit carbon pollution from existing power plants.

By preventing any limitation on the largest source of carbon pollution in the United States, this bill recklessly endangers public health and the environment. I urge a ``no'' vote.

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