Hank Johnson: “I thank the chairman. Mr. Speaker, my colleague Congressman McDermott pointed to this picture in today's edition of The…”

“I thank the chairman. Mr. Speaker, my colleague Congressman McDermott pointed to this picture in today's edition of The Washington Post. This is during the daylight. It is outside. It is in China. I have been over there about four times, and I can relate to this picture in case nobody has been over there. Anybody who has been over there knows how the environment, the air quality, and people's health are impacted by the lack of regulations that have existed over in China. They have an acute air pollution problem. The fact is we don't have air pollution like that here in America because we have had regulations promulgated by agencies like the EPA, particularly the EPA, that have resulted in, yes, some increased costs to Americans, but the result of that cost is air quality that does not look like this. This is worth paying for, and the people will continue to pay. We will continue to pay. I mean, life is not free. It is true, though, that, with companies making so much money these days due to the misbalance in the economy, people are being squeezed. I hate to ask people to pay more, but I myself cannot live just based on the price that businesses have to pay to make sure that they are not polluting our environment. They should pay, and we have to pay our fair share, too. The question is: Are we going to be able to save our planet from countries that don't have regulations? We are going in the opposite direction here. We are talking about doing away with the EPA.…”