WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Ben Cardin, a senior member of the Environment and Public Works Committee, gave the following remarks after the Senate Democrats voted on the Congressional Review Act to override President Trump’s so-called Affordable Clean Energy Rule.

View Senator Cardin’s remarks HERE

Download the remarks HERE

“On the floor today, we were disappointed that we were not able to get the votes to override President Trump’s dirty power plant rule. Make no mistake about it; the rule promulgated is a dirty power plant rule.

 “Let me just give you a couple examples: The rule that it repeals – that is the Clean Power Plan rule – would have reduced dangerous carbon pollutants by about one third. If you look at the EPA’s own analysis of the rule that was promulgated by President Trump, it makes minuscule reductions in harmful carbons. In fact, many of us believe it will actually add to carbon pollution in our community. And why is that the case? Because the Trump rule deals with each individual power plant efficiency and does not deal with the mix in order to reduce the high pollutant energy sources. It takes away the discretion of local governments to have the type of mix including using natural gas and renewable energy sources. It’s an affront on federalism. It delays the implementation of these environmentally-friendly changes.

 “So it’s a delay, it won’t accomplish these results, and it takes away the ability of states to innovate.

 “In my region, we have RGGI, which is a regional effort in which we have seen tremendous progress made by using market forces. That cannot be done under the rule promulgated by the Trump Administration. So for all those reasons, we had a chance today to speak up on behalf of our environment.

 “It not only puts our environment at risk it puts our public health at risk. There’s no question that as a result of the failure to allow the clean power plants to go forward, we’re going to see more premature deaths. We’re going to see more asthma episodes by families, more parents not able to go to work to take care of their kids, more days lost – all that’s going to happen. It’s a missed opportunity and we very much regret that we did not have the support among our Republican colleagues in order to move forward for our environment and public health.”

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