Earl Blumenauer: “But it seems to me that we take a step back and we look at the approach that has been offered up. We have talked a…”

“But it seems to me that we take a step back and we look at the approach that has been offered up. We have talked a little bit about air quality problems in the State of Texas, which are substantial, and they are getting worse as it relates to other parts of the country. Governor Bush has touted his voluntary program to deal with over 700 factories that are not meeting the air quality standards. Many of these have been grandfathered in. The approach that was touted by Governor Bush under legislation in Texas over a year ago, Senate bill, S. 767, was basically voluntary compliance. Well, in the face of this voluntary compliance, the Texas Air Crisis Campaign has gone back and looked at what has actually happened in the State of Texas. Of these over 700 factories, only a small number have stepped forward and done anything. The total amount of harmful air pollution from these few dozen plants that are doing anything at all has reduced harmful air pollution by less than one-third of 1 percent. It is an approach that I think is something that most people would not be very excited about applied on the Federal level.”