Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Over the past year, Republicans have brought to the floor one bill after another to weaken the Clean Air Act and eliminate EPA authority to protect public health from dangerous air pollution. The House has passed bills to nullify EPA's rules on air pollution from incinerators, power plants, cement kilns, and industrial boilers. But the bill before us today breaks new ground. It would block EPA from taking an action that EPA has no plan to take. This bill is called the ``Farm Dust Regulation Prevention Act of 2011.'' Well, that's a misleading title. EPA currently does not regulate farm dust and they have no plans to regulate farm dust. EPA Administrator Jackson told Congress that she will propose no change to the current air quality standard for coarse particles, which have been in place since the Reagan administration. This bill belongs in the False Advertising Hall of Fame. It is not really about farms at all. Its real effect is to exempt industrial mining operations and other large industries from regulation under the Clean Air Act. And it threatens to overturn the particulate pollution standards that protect families in both rural and urban communities. Section three of the bill exempts so-called ``nuisance dust'' from any regulation under the Clean Air Act. It then defines nuisance dust incredibly broadly. The definition covers both coarse particulates and deadly fine particulates.…
On the recordDecember 8, 2011
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