Thank you for the opportunity to testify today. It is my pleasure to be here in Oklahoma City. As is the case with others testifying here today, our primary mission at EPA is to protect public health.
Air pollution is associated with a variety of serious health and environmental problems.
For example, breathing particulate matter can aggravate pre-existing respiratory ailments, reduce lung capacity and even result in premature death. Photochemical smog can impair lung function, cause chest pain and cough, and worsen respiratory diseases and asthma. We have made great strides as a nation reducing levels of all of these pollutants. EPA's role in this has entailed a wide variety of actions ranging from setting national air quality standards that protect the public health, to requiring power plants to reduce emissions of harmful air pollution, to setting standards for vehicle emissions, to working with state and local governments to ensure that they have the necessary tools to implement plans to reduce air pollution and to inform the public about air quality. The Clean Air Act, a law created and amended with strong bipartisan support, provides the blueprint for our efforts to clean the nation's air.