Click here or on the image above to watch Senator Capito’s questions.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Ranking Member of the Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, today participated in a Chemical Safety, Waste Management, Environmental Justice, and Regulatory Oversight Subcommittee hearing to examine current issues adversely affecting environmental justice populations.
HIGHLIGHTS:
MIXED MESSAGES FROM THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION: “President Biden has recognized that reducing power sector emissions requires ‘leveraging the carbon pollution-free energy potential of power plants retrofitted with carbon capture…’ So, I was surprised when I read the recommendations from the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council, [of] which you were the vice chair. That group stated in their report ‘that any support for carbon capture, utilization, and storage would harm disadvantaged communities.’…The report that came from White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council is different from what the actual administration and Council of Environmental Quality is saying that CCUS has a critical role to play in decarbonizing the global economy so I think that’s a juxtaposition there of two different positions coming from the same administration.”
WASHINGTON IGNORING LOCAL VOICES: “We have so many people impacted by regulation or by new policies that come forward or by the inability to fix the problems. Where my frustration comes from—and I think I hear this from both of you—is that…nobody is going to care for your environment, your property, your part of the world that is so deep in your culture, better than you. Nobody knows how to care for that better than you. So is that a frustration for you that sometimes all these decisions are made and your voice is never heard?”
# # #