Xavier Becerra: “My amendment strikes section 430 from the underlying bill. Section 430 blocks efforts by the Environmental Protection…”

“My amendment strikes section 430 from the underlying bill. Section 430 blocks efforts by the Environmental Protection Agency to ensure that industries which handle hazardous substances set aside sufficient funds, in the form of bonds or insurance, to clean up toxic spills or releases that are attributable to their hazardous activities. Under current law, the EPA is required to set financial responsibility requirements for industries at high risk of polluting the environment to the point of creating these toxic Superfund sites. Congress required the EPA to establish financial responsibility requirements to ensure that taxpayers do not have to pay for the cost of cleaning up contaminated sites. Communities across America experience firsthand what it is like to live and breathe through the contamination of a serial polluter. Right now, thousands of people in my hometown of Los Angeles are living through this very nightmare. After nearly 30 years of operating a lead recycling battery plant, Exide Technologies in the Los Angeles area shut its operations down after contaminating some 10,000 thousand homes with lead--let me repeat that--10,000 homes with lead in the Los Angeles area. It has been more than a year since Exide shut down this plant and we still don't know who will foot the bill for cleaning those nearly 10,000 homes with each home carrying up to a $40,000 price tag to get cleaned up. A $40,000 price tag, 10,000 homes--do the math--$400 million.…”