On the recordMarch 8, 2011
I want to make three quick points in the time I have. The House bill cuts $2 billion out of the clean water and safe drinking water infrastructure loan programs at a time when EPA calculates we have a $600 billion water infrastructure deficit. We are behind on rebuilding America's clean water infrastructure, and yet they cut it. We need the infrastructure. We could certainly use the jobs. This is a very misplaced cut. From a clean air perspective, the bill cuts $60 million from State and local grants that ensure clean air and clean water and attacks clean air programs. In 2010, the Clean Air Act is estimated to have saved 160,000 lives, compared to where things would have been without it. Physicians for Social Responsibility says that U.S. coal plants alone cause about 554,000 asthma attacks each year. Why do I talk about asthma? Rhode Island has a 10-percent rate of asthma, despite not having a single coal-fired powerplant. Why is this? Because out in the Midwest, they are pumping their pollution up into the sky, where it falls down on our New England States.
