New Congress Pushes for Worst Clean Air Rollback in History
Congress has introduced a CRA that could permanently remove protections safeguarding communities from some of the most toxic air pollution
Every breath matters. Across the country, industry exposes communities to deadly air pollutants like benzene, mercury, and dioxins—chemicals that cause cancer, harm children’s development, and ravage vulnerable populations. Since its passage more than five decades ago, the Clean Air Act has been a critical shield, holding the worst air polluters accountable. Now, Congress is poised to dismantle a key Clean Air Act safeguard through an obscure legislative tool, the Congressional Review Act, threatening the health of millions. As toxic pollution overburdens vulnerable communities near big air polluters, the fight to defend the Clean Air Act has never been more urgent.
Dismantling Protections Harms the Most Vulnerable
The 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments identify 187 air pollutants as “hazardous” because they threaten human health and safety. Industrial sources of these pollutants are categorized as either “major sources” or “area sources,” reflective of the tonnage of these dangerous toxics they emit. If a facility like a chemical plant or refinery is “major,” it must monitor, report, and reduce its emissions to the maximum extent possible.
However, some of the hazardous air pollutants the Clean Air Act lists are so toxic that controlling only the “major” polluters cannot protect public health. The Clean Air Act Amendments specify seven of these pollutants, including mercury, lead, dioxins, and PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), because they are toxic in tiny quantities, persist in the environment once released, and – worst of all – build up in human tissue and pass from mothers to their unborn infants and breast-feeding babies. For these seven super-toxics, all of which can cause cancer, congenital disabilities, and/or permanent learning disabilities, the Clean Air Act requires compliance requirements regardless of an industrial source’s categorization as “major” or “area.” Strict compliance requirements for the chemical plants, refineries, and other polluters that emit these super-toxic pollutants are fundamental to the way in which the Clean Air Act helps protect communities from life-changing health risks.
The CRA: A Threat to Clean Air Protections
Last week, Congress introduced S.J.Res. 31 to repeal the Reclassification Rule. If passed, it will be the first-ever rollback of Clean Air Act protections in the law’s half-century history. Never before has Congress stripped long-standing protections away from American families, let alone done so for the most toxic pollutants and the worst polluters. Since its passage, the Clean Air Act has effectively reduced emissions while the American economy has grown. Voters of all parties overwhelmingly support clean air protections. Should Congress upend this well-established policy, communities near these plants—predominantly low-income families and people of color—will bear the greatest burden. Already living with disproportionate exposure to toxic pollution, these communities will face even higher risks of cancer, asthma, congenital disabilities, and other severe health conditions. This would be unconscionable and harmful, yet it is a real possibility.
As Patrice Simms, vice president of Healthy Communities at Earthjustice, said when the EPA reinstated the policy last year, “Communities living near mega polluters have long been forced to endure a toxic mix of deadly chemicals that are well-known to cause cancer and other severe health issues. No corporation should ever be allowed to shirk its responsibilities and pollute with impunity.”
Clean Air Is a Right to Defend
The issue is more than just accountability for the worst polluters—it’s our fundamental right to breathe clean air. Industry voices claim that repealing clean air protections will somehow incentivize polluters to reduce their emissions. But all this resolution would do is deregulate thousands of industrial sources of the most carcinogenic pollutants and give them a pass to increase toxic pollution. By requiring transparency and ensuring facilities follow the most protective pollution control standards, this rule empowers communities to defend their health and hold polluters accountable.
Rolling back this safeguard would prioritize corporate profits over human lives, reversing decades of progress. Congress must reject the CRA resolution and preserve the protections that keep our air safe because everyone deserves the right to breathe clean air—no exceptions.
Jim Pew is the director of clean air practice. He is based in Earthjustice's Washington, D.C. office. He received a B.A. in history from Stanford University, a M.A. in law from Cambridge University, and a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania.
Earthjustice’s Washington, D.C., office works at the federal level to prevent air and water pollution, combat climate change, and protect natural areas. We also work with communities in the Mid-Atlantic region and elsewhere to address severe local environmental health problems, including exposures to dangerous air contaminants in toxic hot spots, sewage backups and overflows, chemical disasters, and contamination of drinking water. The D.C. office has been in operation since 1978.
