Ed Whitfield: “I do rise in opposition to the gentleman's amendment. I would remind everyone that we are talking about 19 coal refuse…”

“I do rise in opposition to the gentleman's amendment. I would remind everyone that we are talking about 19 coal refuse plants around the country. They have already cleaned up 214 million tons of coal refuse that are creating significant environmental problems. The SENSE Act does not change or increase in any way the sulfur dioxide emission caps. So it does not have any impact on that. The EPA itself said that the only benefit from their Cross-State Air Pollution Rule and their sulfur dioxide emission rule would be the reduction in particulate matter, which is regulated in another aspect of the Clean Air Act, and the SENSE Act does not affect or have any impacts on that. So even the EPA has said that this is not really an issue of polluting or endangering the clean air. They simply made a decision that they were not going to have a subcategory to deal with these plans. The gentleman's amendment would require the EPA Administrator to certify that the act would not result in the increase in emission of air pollutants. They have already basically said that. One thing that he does not look at in his amendment is the tremendous benefits that the public is receiving by the cleaning up of these coal refuse piles around the country. So, for those reasons, we respectfully oppose the gentleman's amendment.…”