People under the age of 21 can’t drink alcohol or do drugs. People need to be 16 to operate a motor vehicle. Water laws are in place to ensure safe drinking water for citizens.
These laws, and many others, are in place to keep citizens safe; yet there is currently a vote within Congress to overturn parts of a crucial law: the Clean Air Act.
Under the Clean Air Act, large companies must regulate pollutants they are releasing into the atmosphere.
A majority of the time, this requires companies to spend money on cleaning mechanisms…which they don’t always appreciate.
To bring the regulation back to Congress, which was originally passed by the Biden Administration in 2024, republicans in the senate utilized the Congressional Review Act.
The issue that is currently being voted on in Congress, which already passed in the senate with a 52-46 party vote, would reduce these restrictions on companies and industries.
The act, if passed, would allow companies to release Alkylated lead compounds, Polycyclic organic matter (POM), Mercury, Hexachlorobenzene, Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB), 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzofuran (TCDF), and 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin into the atmosphere unregulated.
The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) stated that “if it becomes law, the measure would allow nearly 2,000 polluting facilities to reduce their existing pollution controls and increase their emissions of the most highly toxic chemicals.”
All of the pollutants have been regulated for a reason. These pollutants can lead to several different health risks.
In an article by CBS News, they had data supporting this stating: “The nation’s largest industrial polluters [now have] an easy way to release toxic air pollutants linked to cancer, birth defects, and brain damage.”
Additionally, the people who are most affected by these pollutants are young children, not adults.
This leads to different groups, such as businesses and parents, having different views on the issues.
On the opposing side, many businesses, and politicians who support them, argue that it is unfair to regulate companies and essentially require them to spend money in order to meet those regulations.
The National Association of Manufacturers stated in a letter to President Trump, that calling the rule “burdensome,” and listed it as “one of several environmental regulations that are “strangling our economy” and should be reversed.”
But parents strongly disagree.
In an interview with parents who are a part of The Moms Clean Air Force, mothers said this: “‘Today, I worry for children’s health more than ever before…They [the Senate] voted to allow chemical manufacturers, pesticide makers, refineries and other facilities to turn off their pollution controls for the most insidious air pollutants known to humankind—This will put our children, and all of us, at grave risk. It is a shameful, and completely unnecessary move.’”
If the bill gets passed in the House of Representatives, companies’ emissions will not be regulated, pollutants will be released at high levels, and citizens, specifically children, will face the consequences.
