Chair Rodgers Opening Remarks on Harmful EPA NAAQS Standards (2.15.24)

Rogers for 5 minutes for an opening statement thank you Mr chairman for decades America has been the best place to do business and we have the best air quality in the world we've led the world with some of the highest environmental standards America has done more to lift people out of poverty raise the standard of living more than any other nation in the world unfortunately that's all being threatened the number one barrier to getting anything done today in the United States is permitting and it currently takes seven years on average and unfortunately rules like the EPA is proposing are going to make that much worse last week the Biden Administration EPA finalized a standard on fine particulate matter or PM 2.5 a decision that is devastating for American manufacturing people's livelihoods and our economic leadership this new rule goes Way Beyond the original Congressional intent first laid out in the Clean Air Act which stated goal says quote reasonable actions to promote reasonable actions to limit or reduce emissions and pollution the admin the administration's process to develop this latest rule was rushed lacked transparency and failed to incorporate feedback from stakeholders across the country who will be impacted the hardest with EPA nearly 150 proposed major rules this is just the latest example of President Biden's extreme agenda that's going to devastate our communities as we'll hear today the epa's decision to finalize these unrealistic standards will have far-reaching consequences for our economy the harm will extend to nearly every sector including manufacturing power agriculture construction and Forestry jeopardize hundreds of billions of dollars in US economic activity and millions of jobs and make it nearly impossible to build new manufacturing facilities making efforts to secure our supply chains and reduce our dependence on countries like China nearly impossible by all measures the nation's air quality has improved dramatically since the Clean Air Act was enacted and current standards are improving quality even more the EPA itself has concluded that the current standards are protective of Public Health and has reported that nearly that the total emissions of criteria air pollutants have dropped 73% since 1980 the data is clear the US Air Quality is the best in the world and it's only getting better despite this prog progress the Biden EPA is taking steps to introduce these new standards that are completely dorest from reality instead of more harmful regulations what we need are reasonable solutions that are appropriately balanced protecting our environment while ensuring American continues its economic leadership that's the approach that we've taken for decades and it's worked as our air gets cleaner the Clean Air Act Provisions were established decades ago when the air quality was much worse and we need to revisit that we learned in uh our September hearing that as new PM standards get closer to Natural background levels there's less room for traditional industry industrial sources to get permits or further cut their emissions but the epa's new stricter standards completely ignore this fact under those standards permitting New Economic Development will be nearly impossible this will severely hinder new manufacturing projects including Pulp and Paper steel cement the automotive sector Advanced B batteries and even Pharmaceuticals States will be forced to limit new economic activity for communities that need them most additionally limits in current law prevent States from addressing other naturally occurring sources of pollution such as wildfires we must update air quality standards responsibly in a way that reflects reality the discussion draft under consideration today will ensure that measures to implement Health protections are realistic and balanced in their approach it will enable more orderly and responsible requirements that states can actually implement it will ensure Regulators follow the law when considering how to promote healthy communities taking into account things like adverse Public Health welfare social economic and energy impacts will also make it easier to reduce Wildfire risk something that's especially important in my home state of Washington protecting our environment and our economy are not mutually exclusive goals but in order to achieve both we must rethink how we address pollution levels that are outside our control this discussion Draft today is a starting point to maintain America's economic leadership and ensure public health and I look forward to the discussion and yield back General