In a Win for Public Health and Environment, Rand Paul Loses Bid to Weaken Air Quality Standards
"In a Win for Public Health and Environment, Rand Paul Loses Bid to Weaken Air Quality Standards"
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Kentucky Senator Rand Paul has failed in his bid to overturn key air quality standards that were finalized this summer.
Environmental groups were on edge today as they awaited a vote in the Senate on a Congressional Review Act that would have killed the Environmental Protection Agency’s Cross-State Air Pollution Rule. The CSAR requires 27 states to reduce emissions that are contributing to ozone and particulate pollution in other states.
Paul introduced the Congressional Review Act, a tool created in the 1990’s that allows Congress to overturn regulations, in an effort to strip the EPA’s ability to regulate toxic cross-state emissions from power plants.
John Walke, a senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council, wrote about the consequences of Paul’s CRA:
If a Congressional Review Act vote abolished CSAPR and blocked EPA from reissuing a similar rule, this would make it extremely unlikely that EPA could even reissue clean air standards achieving the same emissions reductions as the weaker Clean Air Interstate Rule; the two rules are substantially similar in numerous respects, including the problems they target; the states, polluters, and pollutants covered; the rules’ underlying modeling and rationale; the legal authority and regulatory structure; etc. The result would be millions more tons of smog and soot pollution from dirty power plants.
The Senate, which has been much more moderate than the House on environmental issues, rejected the CRA by a vote of 56-41. President Obama indicated that we would have vetoed Paul’s resolution if it passed.
After a quick tally of the contributions from the mining and utilities industries to Senators compiled by OpenSecrets.org, we can see the differences in votes based upon the money going to individuals.
Nays (56)
Mining: $2,016,918
Utilities: $8,736,305
Total: $10,753,223
Yeas (41)
Mining: $5,602,091
Utilities: $9,214,086
Total: $14,816,177
Environmental groups are hailing the vote as a major victory for the economy and public health. According to the EPA, this rule will yield between $120 billion and $280 billion in annual health savings, and prevent up to 34,000 premature deaths each year.
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Everything Please (regarding today’s Keystone XL announcements)
Joe, as many people know by now, the Obama Administration has delayed the Keystone XL decision. Undoubtedly you’ll make a post on that news.
That said, I’m writing with a request. When you do the post, please include (or include direct links to) ALL of the announcements and related comments, in their entirety, that were made by the State Department and by President Obama on the matter today. The articles that I’ve seen so far only give passages of the announcement, and one or two comments from Obama, and don’t (as far as I can tell) provide or link to the entire State Department announcement or to Obama’s entire statement/comments. Thus, the articles so far make it very hard — indeed impossible — to correctly assess the reasons being given, or who is saying exactly what, so to speak. I’d like to understand exactly what the State Department said and exactly what President Obama said, or didn’t say.
Thanks,
Jeff
Jack Conway wasn’t the ideal candidate, but he was better than Rand Paul, so it would have been better if environmentalists had worked to elect Conway to the Senate to prevent Rand Paul sponsoring and pushing his efforts to pollute the air.
Of course, this applies to most Republicans elected to the Senate and House – elect Democratic supermajorities to Congress and the environment would be headed in the wrong direction slower without the pressure to speed up planetary destruction.
Congressional elections have consequence for the environment.
Democrats need to attack pollution advocates such a Rand Paul head on. Call them out. This is an important issue and a winning issue and a moral issue. Call them out on bad morals of making people, especially children sick so that we can save a little on utilities and so energy companies can make more money. Please make the environment a campaign issue.
Any creature named after that hideous misanthrope Ayn Rand, and an advocate of her horrific ‘philosophy’ has no place in the politics of any civilised society. That being said, I expect Paul to be US President some fine day.