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Washington, D.C. --- U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, today sharply rebuked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for considering a secret proposal that would allow refineries, chemical plants, and other polluters to increase toxic emissions. This draft rule could result in individual facilities emitting up to 50,000 more pounds of toxic pollution every year.
Under the Clean Air Act, the biggest toxic polluters are required to adopt the greatest possible pollution controls for certain toxic substances so that plants cut their emissions by up to 95 percent. The EPA's secret proposal would seriously undermine the intent of the Clean Air Act by allowing these polluters to reduce their emissions temporarily so they could be reclassified as minor sources of pollution, then escape future regulation by keeping pollution levels just below certain thresholds.
A leaked internal memo from eight of the EPA's ten Regional Administrators expressed serious reservations about this proposal, saying that it would create a loophole so that polluters could "virtually avoid regulation and greatly undermine any enforcement against them.
Pallone issued the following statement in response to the EPA's secret proposal:
"It has been a long and difficult struggle to try to clean up the air that New Jerseyans breathe, and we have quite a ways to go. I am appalled that the EPA wants to actually go backwards and let polluters get away with putting more toxic chemicals into our air.
"It's the most vulnerable among us -- the elderly, those with respiratory illnesses, and minority and poor communities who live near so many polluting facilities -- that will bear the brunt of this terrible proposal. This is the latest example of a Bush administration siding with its wealthy corporate interests, rather than everyday people.
"The proposal comes on the heels of another EPA proposal to weaken a communities' right to know how much toxic pollution comes from nearby plants and seems to take yet another step back to the days before we understood just how devastating toxic air pollutants can be. However, we now know that toxic air pollution is associated with a host of respiratory and other diseases, and we can't afford to make the quality of New Jersey's air worse.
"EPA should drop this ill-advised proposal and instead take up a sensible agenda focusing on protecting citizens' health as best as possible. I'm going to work in Washington to make other members of Congress aware of this proposal so we can reject it and do what is right for our constituents." |
