Attacks on Clean Air Act Fail in Four Senate Votes

NEWS RELEASE

Contact:
Tony Kreindler, 202-445-8108, tkreindler@edf.org

(Washington, DC – April, 6, 2011) Attempts to unravel public health protections under the Clean Air Act failed in the Senate today despite opportunities to vote on four different amendments from both parties. The amendments are a prelude to further attempts to weaken public health protections as the budget debate continues.

"Today's votes were an unprecedented assault on public health protections under the Clean Air Act. In 40 years we've never faced such a brazen attempt to rollback air quality standards," said Fred Krupp, president of Environmental Defense Fund. "It remains to be seen which Senators will continue to side with clean air and who will vote to go backward."

The amendments from Sens. Max Baucus (D-MT), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) would have to varying degrees delayed or prevented the Environmental Protection Agency from implementing congressionally mandated and Supreme Court-affirmed responsibilities to address greenhouse gases from the largest sources of pollution.