Bill Flores: “I thank Chairman Whitfield for allowing me to speak on behalf of this bill. As a coauthor of H.R. 4775, I rise to…”

“I thank Chairman Whitfield for allowing me to speak on behalf of this bill. As a coauthor of H.R. 4775, I rise to strongly urge my colleagues to support this bipartisan Ozone Standards Implementation Act of 2016. Since 1980, our economy has more than tripled in growth, while ozone levels have gone down by 33 percent. The EPA predicts that ozone levels will continue to improve, particularly as the 75 parts per billion standard is fully implemented. Most importantly, the EPA states: ``The vast majority of U.S. counties will meet the 70 parts per billion standard by 2025 just with the rules and programs now in place or underway.'' In March of 2015, the EPA released its implementation regulations on the delayed 2008 ozone standard of 75 percent per billion. Last October, just 7 months later, the EPA moved the goal posts with a new ozone standard of 70 parts per billion. Our States and communities now face the burden of spending scarce taxpayer resources to implement two different ozone standards at the same time. So what does this mean? It means that even though the EPA admits that air quality will improve, our States and counties now face a premature nonattainment designation, significantly limiting new job creation opportunities.…”