Frank Pallone: “It bothers me a great deal when I hear my colleagues on the other side of the aisle acting as if we don't already have a…”

“It bothers me a great deal when I hear my colleagues on the other side of the aisle acting as if we don't already have a Clean Air Act in place. The fact of the matter is the Clean Air Act was passed by both Democrats and Republicans back in 1970. It has been amended and changed several times since then, but the EPA is simply acting on a law that was passed by the Congress. There is no such thing here that the EPA is somehow doing something that they shouldn't be doing, which is what is being suggested by some of my colleagues on the Republican side and, I guess, is the basis for this legislation. The EPA is regulating based on laws that were passed by Congress-- that is what an agency does--but many of my colleagues on the Republican side continue to raise the false specter of job losses and high economic costs in order to try to block the President and the EPA from implementing the clean power plan to curb power plant carbon pollution. I just want to say again, in going back to the original Clean Air Act, the history of the Clean Air Act shows that they are wrong, that we can have both a clean environment and a strong economy. This is an argument that industry has used every time the Clean Air Act has been strengthened.…”