Paul Tonko: “My amendment strikes subsection (b) of section 3, which would allow the EPA to consider technological feasibility when…”

“My amendment strikes subsection (b) of section 3, which would allow the EPA to consider technological feasibility when determining what level of pollution is safe. Health-based standards are the cornerstone of the Clean Air Act-- health-based. The EPA sets NAAQS at levels sufficient to protect the public health, essentially, the level of ambient air pollution that is safe to breathe. While costs are not considered in establishing these standards, costs can be--and are considered--in developing plans to achieve the necessary pollution reductions to meet the standards. Unfortunately, H.R. 806, as currently drafted, would change the longstanding criteria for establishing an air quality standard from one that is based solely on protecting public health to one that includes a consideration of the technological feasibility. This issue has been long debated and settled by Congress. Since passage of the Clean Air Act in 1970, including the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments, Congress has excluded technological feasibility considerations from standard setting to ensure that public health--and public health alone--would determine the standards for air quality. In 1970, on the passage of the Clean Air Act, Senator Ed Muskie from Maine said: ``The first responsibility of Congress is not the making of technological or economic judgments--or even to be limited by what is or appears to be technologically or economically infeasible.…”