From the Leaf Chronicle...Blackburn pushes Clean Air Act change
U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn told leaders of Bridgestone Metalpha USA Inc. Wednesday that legislation she has proposed will help major producers avoid language in the Clean Air Act that she says "punishes" factories.
Blackburn, who is in a campaign to retain her 7th Congressional District seat, is the first federal lawmaker to visit Bridgestone in Clarksville, and toured the International Drive plant where steel cords for radial tires are made.
Blackburn told Bridgestone Metalpha President and CEO Ken Yamasaki and plant manager Donna Bright that the current language of the Clean Air Act places an unfair burden — fees for too much carbon production — on manufacturers like Bridgestone.
She said the language was driven largely by environmentalists "who want to punish and send jobs to other parts of the world."
"(Companies) are not going to add jobs when there's that kind of fee," she said.
The proposed bill would amend the act to redefine carbon dioxide, water vapor, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons and sulfur hexafluoride as not air pollutants. Some, like perfluorocarbons, do not harm the ozone layer, but are known as powerful greenhouse gases that retain heat in the atmosphere.
Yamasaki and Bright both said they were glad to have Blackburn visit but did not have any agenda or requests.
