Joe Barton: “I thank the distinguished chairman. I rise in strong support of this bill. I would like to make a few comments. First of…”

“I thank the distinguished chairman. I rise in strong support of this bill. I would like to make a few comments. First of all, the bill before us doesn't change one sentence or one paragraph in the Clean Air Act. It doesn't change anything. What it does do is prevent the EPA from using the Clean Air Act to regulate CO<INF>2</INF> as a criteria pollutant under the Clean Air Act. I was in Congress when we passed the Clean Air Act amendments back in 1991. I was a cosponsor of the bill. I worked on the bill in committee, voted for it on the floor. So I am a supporter of a strong Clean Air Act. CO<INF>2</INF> is not a criteria pollutant under the Clean Air Act. It was never intended to be. It's only because of a 5-4 Supreme Court decision that said the EPA had to make a decision whether it should be, and then a very flawed EPA endangerment finding, when President Obama became the President, that we have an EPA authority, tenuous as it is, to regulate CO<INF>2</INF> under the Clean Air Act. {time} 1450 What this bill does is take us back to the original Clean Air Act and say we're going to regulate the criteria pollutants. But greenhouse gases and CO<INF>2</INF>, which is a greenhouse gas, are not one of those criteria pollutants. What are the purported benefits of regulating CO<INF>2</INF>?…”