©2025 League of Conservation Voters
2012 Scorecard Vote
174
244
14
Issues
Representative Gene Green (D-TX) offered an amendment to H.R. 4480, the so-called Domestic Energy and Jobs Act, which would protect the Clean Air Act’s health-based focus when determining whether our air is safe to breathe. As written, H.R. 4480 would direct the Environmental Protection Agency to define healthy air based on the “feasibility and cost” to polluting industries, which would compel the EPA to accept air quality standards that do not protect public health. The Clean Air Act already thoroughly allows for consideration of feasibility and cost in implementing pollution control strategies, but including cost in the standard-setting process would fundamentally undermine these health-based protections, which could lead to more asthma attacks, heart attacks, and premature deaths. The Green amendment would remove this provision from the bill and restore the Clean Air Act’s longstanding requirement that national air quality standards be based solely on the best available health science. On June 21, the House rejected the Green amendment by a vote of 174-244 (House roll call vote 395). YES IS THE PRO-ENVIRONMENT VOTE. H.R. 4480 subsequently passed the House, but the Senate took no action on this legislation.
©2025 League of Conservation Voters