DeGette Moves to Block Pruitt Sneak Attack on Air Quality: Super-Polluting Truck Access to US …

Washington, DC – Congresswoman Diana DeGette (D-CO), Chief Deputy Whip, today moved to block a sneak attack on air quality that would put more “super-polluting” trucks on America’s roads thanks to a ruling that former Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt’s underlings issued after he quit, but before he left the building.

A senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees the EPA, DeGette has just introduced a measure that essentially nullifies a memo issued on July 6, the day after Pruitt’s resignation was announced, regarding so-called “glider vehicles” – widely known as super-polluting due to contaminant levels up to 55 times greater than vehicles with modern pollution controls – and “glider kits” to retrofit other trucks so they too can belch more toxins into the air.

“The ghost of Scott Pruitt continues to haunt this country as his disgusting legacy of dismantling environmental protections lives on,” DeGette said. “But there’s still time to reverse a part of the damage by letting a single sentence become law. This measure would keep some of the most environmentally egregious commercial vehicles off our roads and would prevent the retrofitting of other trucks to do even more damage to our air.

“Former Administrator Pruitt’s record of harming the environment to benefit industry is as clear as the air we should all be free to breathe. It’s no surprise that the man who many called Pollutin’ Pruitt would try to slip through this deservedly controversial policy just as he was about to head out the agency door for, thankfully, the last time. Not on our watch, Scott Pruitt.”

To block the new rule, DeGette filed an amendment to a spending bill that had already gone through much of the legislative process and will have one final review next week in the Rules Committee before going to the House floor for a vote.