A House panel advanced seven Republican bills Wednesday that could collectively amount to the biggest rewrite of the Clean Air Act in more than three decades if signed into law.
The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on the Environment consistently broke along party lines in approving the legislation during a sometimes confrontational markup. Majority Republicans also rejected all proposed Democratic amendments.
Among other changes, the GOP measures would overhaul EPA’s machinery for setting National Ambient Air Quality Standards, give President Donald Trump more power to exempt polluting industries from existing air regulations and weaken implementation of a stronger soot standard put in place last year that’s predicted to eventually save thousands of lives.
The markup’s contours were set in the opening statements of subcommittee Chair Gary Palmer (R-Ala.) and ranking member Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.).
