A House panel on Thursday approved a bill delaying the implementation of the Environmental Protection Agency’s smog standards with a party line vote.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Energy and Power Subcommittee voted 15-13 to send the Ozone Standards Implementation Act of 2016 to the full committee Thursday.
The bill would delay the implementation of the EPA’s new ozone standards by allowing communities to not be labeled as noncompliers until 2025. It also would change the Clean Air Act by requiring the EPA to review ozone standards every 10 years instead of every five years.
Subcommittee Chairman Pete Olson, R-Texas, said the bill is a measure meant to help communities meet the standards without imposing huge costs. The EPA estimates most of the country will meet the 70 parts per billion standard by 2025 without changing current practice.
“This bill will also ensure these hundreds of counties the EPA projects are already on track to meet 2015 standards can come into compliance without being subjected to additional regulatory burdens, paperwork requirements and restrictions,” Olson said, “which would not do anything, nothing, to improve public health.”
The bill was introduced by the House Texas delegation and has support from high-ranking Republicans in the chamber, including Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.
The EPA announced in October that it was reducing the amount of ozone allowed in the air from 75 parts per billion to 70 parts per billion. The news was greeted by derision from both business groups and environmentalists who thought it was too restrictive on business and not strict enough, respectively.
Ozone is the primary component of smog and can cause respiratory illnesses in children and the elderly, such as exacerbating the symptoms of asthma.
Democrats on the subcommittee introduced multiple amendments to try and gut the bill, but were rebuked at each turn. Many said the bill is a blatant show of support for business over public health.
Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Fla., said the bill creates huge loopholes and would be a detriment to air quality in the U.S.
“This bill is a radical attempt to gut the Clean Air Act,” she said.
Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, dismissed her concern and cast the bill as an attempt to put more sanity into the Clean Air Act. He said Republicans recognize the need for ozone standards but they feel communities need more time to meet the stricter level.
“I am skeptical if an increase the standards below its current level is going to bring any benefits at all,” Barton said. “I am absolutely positive it’s going to require huge amounts of resources for cities, states, counties, communities to comply with it. This bill simply slows it down a little bit.”
