In 2011 and 2012, House Republicans have amassed the most anti-environment record in the history of Congress. Contrary to the will of the American people, Republicans continue to resist clean air and clean water. Just before the November 2012 elections, Republicans called the House into session to push for extreme anti-environment and anti-public health bills that have already passed the House.
In 2012, the year that marked the 40th
anniversary of the Clean
Water Act, House Republicans worked to undermined clean drinking water in
the US. The Clean Water
Voting Record shows how House Republicans voted to endanger the drinking
water sources of 117 million Americans by allowing toxic pesticide to flow into
American waterways.
“For forty years, the Clean Water Act has helped protect our water.” said
Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club. “But in the
112th Congress, we’ve seen an unprecedented attack from House Leadership on
clean water policy.”
As reported by the Huffington Post, during this period, the House has voted over 300 times on the floor to block environmental regulations, weaken environmental laws and stop environmental research, and H.R. 3409 may well be the single worst anti-environment bill to be considered in the 112th Congress.
Here is a list of the top 10 anti-environment efforts contained in H.R. 3409
- denies the findings of climate scientists by repealing EPA’s scientific finding that greenhouse gasses endanger public health and the environment
- nullifies the broadly supported emissions standards to reduce carbon pollution from model year 2017-2025 vehicles
- repeals California’s authority to regulation carbon pollution from motor vehicles
- bar EPA from requiring power plants and refineries to reduce carbon pollution
- eliminate existing requirements for large sources to disclose their carbon pollution
- replaced the Clean Air Act with standards that are based on industry costs.
- scrap protections that require power plants to reduce emissions of mercury and other toxics pollutants
- eliminate the EPA’s ability to apply minimum federal water quality standards to protect human health if weaker state standards are in place, as well as
- eliminate the EPA’s authority to object to state discharge permits that fail to meet Clean Water Act standards.
- allow mountaintop removal coal mining.
© 2013, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.
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