Henry Waxman: “I want to reclaim my time because the gentleman is absolutely correct. There is no end point to when there would be…”

“I want to reclaim my time because the gentleman is absolutely correct. There is no end point to when there would be compliance so that we can get the health benefits because of that compliance. But let's go through the bill again. The bill would nullify EPA's emission standards for cement kilns. It ensures that if EPA is able to issue a new standard, the new standard would be less protective of public health and more protective of the cement manufacturers' profits. And even then, the bill allows for implementation of any new standard to be indefinitely delayed. It blocks EPA from requiring cement kilns to comply with the new rules for at least 5 years, and fails to establish any deadline for compliance whatsoever. This could allow cement kilns to continue to pollute without limit indefinitely. I support this amendment because it would use this existing framework of the bill as a baseline for compliance, but it would also allow the administrator to provide additional extensions of 1 year for existing sources if she determines there is a compelling reason. No polluter can have more than 5 years to comply. Already under the Clean Air Act, every facility has complied no later than 3 years after the limits go into effect. Over the past 20 years, tens of thousands of sources across about 100 industries have cleaned up their toxic air pollution within that 3-year period. I think the statutory timeframe is sufficient.…”