July 17, 2017

United States House of Representatives

Washington, DC 20515

Re: Oppose H.R 806 – Extreme Attack on Smog Protections & the Clean Air Act

Dear Representative:

On behalf of our millions of members, the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) works to turn environmental values into national priorities.  Each year, LCV publishes the National Environmental Scorecard, which details the voting records of members of Congress on environmental legislation.  The Scorecard is distributed to LCV members, concerned voters nationwide, and the media.

LCV urges you to vote NO on H.R. 806, the “Ozone Standards Implementation Act,” a radical bill that jeopardizes the health of our families by undermining the EPA’s recently-updated standards for ozone pollution (a.k.a. smog) and eviscerating a central pillar of the Clean Air Act.

The Clean Air Act was enacted with strong bipartisan support and is based on the central premise that clean air protections for dangerous pollutants like smog, soot, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide and lead be based solely on the best-available health science. The law’s drafters structured the law in this manner because Americans deserve to know if their air is safe to breathe or not. For the first time ever, H.R. 806 would allow the EPA to consider factors unrelated to health, like technical feasibility in the initial standard setting process. States consider feasibility and cost when they implement the standards. This system has worked extremely well since 1970 as air quality has improved dramatically while the economy has grown.

The bill would also gut EPA’s ozone standards. H.R. 806 would delay these vital health protections by at least ten years and double the law’s current five-year review periods for updating ozone and all national air quality standards allowing unhealthy air to persist even longer. High ozone levels pose a significant threat to our health, and are especially dangerous for children, the elderly, and asthmatics.

We urge you to REJECT H.R. 806 and will strongly consider including votes on this bill in the 2017 Scorecard. If you need more information, please call my office at (202) 785-8683 and ask to speak with a member of our Government Relations team.

Sincerely,

Gene Karpinski

President