Senate Panel Approves Bill to Curb Power Plant Pollution

Posted: 28-Jun-2002; Updated: 31-Aug-2007

The Senate Environment and Public Works committee narrowly approved a bill (S. 566) to slash most power plant emissions, including carbon dioxide, after a debate that focused on divisions over efforts to combat global warming.

Environmental Defense hailed the committee vote that would regulate power plant emissions of carbon dioxide (CO₂) as well as conventional pollutants mercury, sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrous oxide (NOx).

"For the first time we now have legislation passed by a Senate committee that cuts and caps emissions of carbon dioxide - a leading contributor to global warming. This is truly a watershed moment," said Environmental Defense senior attorney Joseph Goffman.  

The measure would force utilities to reduce sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions by 75 percent, mercury emissions by 90 percent and carbon dioxide by 24 percent within the next six years.

The legislation, authored by Vermont Sen. Jim Jeffords (I), could be considered by the full U.S. Senate later this year, where it faces opposition; Committee Republicans said the bill would not pass if the cap on carbon dioxide emissions was to be enforced.

"Those who are opposed to mandatory limits on CO₂ emissions as part of any multi-pollutant package are simply choosing to bury their heads in the sand," Goffman said. "As the federal government's own report on climate change recently noted, the Earth's atmosphere is becoming warmer and that is going to affect human health and the environment. The longer we wait to act on reducing levels of CO₂, the higher the cost will be both in real dollars and in quality of life. That is why it is urgent to find a path to enacting legislation - not in five years, but in the next year - that actually will deliver the reductions."

President Bush, who dismissed the health and environmental impacts of the EPA report, is promoting an alternative "Clear Skies" proposal that calls for reductions in nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide and mercury emissions, but which does not address carbon dioxide at all. [Environmentalists also warn that the way pollutants are measured under Clear Skies, pollution will actually increase under the plan.] Opponents to Jeffords' bill (also referred to as "four pollutants" legislation) claim caps on carbon emissions would hurt the U.S. economy and drive up utility costs by forcing utilities to convert from coal to more expensive fuels, like natural gas.

Sen. Max Baucus of Montana, a major coal-producing state, was the only Democrat to oppose the bill.

Roll Call

Voting for S. 556:

James Jeffords (I-Vt.), Lincoln Chafee (R-R.I.), Barbara Boxer (D-Ca.), Thomas Carper, (D-Del.), Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), Jon Corzine (D-N.J.), Bob Graham (D-Fla.), Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.), Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore).

Voting against S. 556:

Max Baucus (D-Mont.), Mike Crapo (R-Ida.), Robert Smith (R-N.H.), George Voinovich (R-Ohio), Christopher Bond, (R-Mo.), Pete Domenici (R-N.M.), James Inhofe (R-Okla.), Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) and John Warner (R-Va.).


Additional Links

• Find out more about Global Warming
• Warnings on Global Warming- An interview with Environmental Defense scientist Janine Bloomfield
• Global Warming: Fact vs. Myth