House Environment Subcommittee Debates Drafts to Alter Clean Air Act; Witnesses Split on Health vs. Economic Tradeoffs

The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on the Environment heard competing accounts of how — or whether — to change the Clean Air Act, with Republican members and business groups urging revisions to the law’s National Ambient Air Quality Standards process and Democrats and public‑health advocates warning the proposals would roll back protections that save lives.

The hearing focused on two Republican discussion drafts: the Clean Air Act and Economic Advancement Reform Act (referred to in committee as the CLEAR Act), which would lengthen the statutory review cycle for NAAQS from five to 10 years and allow the EPA administrator to consider attainability and economic feasibility when setting standards; and the Clean Air and Building Infrastructure Improvements Act, which responds specifically to the 2024 annual PM2.5 standard that tightened the limit from 12 to 9 micrograms per cubic meter and would change implementation and preconstruction permitting processes.

Supporters of the drafts, including business trade groups and manufacturers, told the subcommittee the current NAAQS implementation has become impractical for large projects and could block domestic investment. “We must…