Rep. Johnson votes against GOP assault on Clean Air Act

HANK: ‘I would like to vote on the American Jobs Act, not more Republican gimmicks’

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Rep. Johnson today voted against the GOP’s TRAIN Act, a bill that would block two of the most important, life-saving Clean Air rules in decades – the mercury and air toxics rule and cross-state air pollution rule.

“Instead of working to create jobs, we’re wasting our time rehashing important environmental rules that will help clean our air and prevent people from getting sick,” said Johnson. “I would like to vote on the American Jobs Act, not more Republican gimmicks. The President has already said he’ll veto this noxious bill if it reaches his desk.”

Long-overdue Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, which were proposed earlier this year, require power plants to cut releases of mercury and other cancer-causing toxins by 2015. The rule would also reduce fine particle emissions by 29 percent by 2015.

According to the American Lung Association, the new rules would prevent up to 34,000 deaths and 400,000 asthma attacks nationwide every year and prevent up to 1,769 premature deaths in Georgia.

The GOP’s TRAIN Act would block those standards from being implemented.

“I’m sick and tired of the suggestion that strong environmental protections hurt big business – that’s false,” said Johnson.

Since 1970, the Clean Air Act has reduced toxic and health-threatening air pollution by 60 percent while our economy has grown more than 200 percent.

The Environmental Defense Fund and a University of Massachusetts study estimate that the mercury and air toxics rule and the cross-state air pollution rule would together create nearly 1.5 million jobs over the next five years driven by new investments in energy technology.

“We can have clean energy and jobs,” said Johnson. “The economic benefits of the Clean Air Act have shown to outweigh the costs associated with the law, and the financial benefits to our economy could reach nearly $2 trillion by 2020.”

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