Public Citizen and 40+ Organizations Condemn House Republicans’ Assault on the Clean Air Act
Today's hearing on mobile source legislation is a gift to polluters — and a threat to every living, breathing American
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Environment will hold a hearing today on a slate of bills aimed at gutting the Clean Air Act. The bills that are being discussed today are nothing short of a coordinated attempt to undermine one of the most consequential public health laws in American history — handing a windfall to the fossil fuel and auto industries that have long sought to evade accountability for the pollution they produce.
A coalition of over 40 organizations, including Public Citizen, today sent a letter to the leadership of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, calling on the committee to express strong opposition to any legislative attempts to weaken Clean Air Act (CAA) requirements. In response to today’s hearing, Will Anderson, EV policy advocate with Public Citizen’s Climate Program, issued the following statement.
“For more than half a century, the Clean Air Act has stood as proof that good public policy can protect people from corporate harm. The science is unambiguous and the record is clear: the Clean Air Act has saved millions of lives and spared tens of millions more from heart attacks, lost workdays, and chronic illness. Clean air doesn’t happen by accident. Congress empowered the EPA to set standards, enforce them, and strengthen them as science evolved.
“All but one of the bills before the Subcommittee today, including the CARS Act, the LOCOMOTIVES Act, and the Freedom to Fuel Act, chip away at that framework. Republicans are attempting to make pollution easier by tying the hands of states and the federal government. This legislation prioritizes the profits of industry over the lungs of the people who live near truck routes, rail yards, and highways. These are not reforms. They are retreats from common sense public health protections.”
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