Dover – Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden and his colleagues in eight other states said Wednesday that legislation pending in the United States Senate would severely damage states’ ability to protect their citizens from harmful pollution.
In the attached letter to the Senate Environmental and Public Works Committee, the Attorneys General said that the Chemical Safety Improvement Act would “seriously jeopardize public health and safety by preventing states from acting to address potential risks of toxic substances and exercising state enforcement powers.”
The bill, which the Senate committee is considering today, would amend the existing Toxic Substances Cleanup Act in a way that would pre-empt states from enacting anti-pollution and environmental protection laws stronger than the federal government’s, the Attorneys General said.
“Protection of its citizens’ health and environment is a traditional state duty and power,” the Attorneys General wrote in their letter. “States have historically been at the forefront of protecting against the harms of toxic chemicals and driving innovation in the development of safer products, often acting before the federal government.”
Attorneys General from California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Oregon, Vermont and Washington also signed the letter.
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