BEYOND COPENHAGEN

Carper, Alexander Propose Clean Air Act Amendment

Two Senators are proposing a bill to make all coal-fired power plants install pollution control equipment.

Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Tom Carper, D-Del., want to amend the Clean Air Act and force older, grandfathered plants to clean up.  Alexander said there's no reason to continue the exemption.

The mesure calls for reducing emissions of sulfur dioxide 80 percent by 2018, nitrogen dioxide 53 percent by 2015 and mercury 90 percent by 2015.

The bill would also toughen the Bush Administration's Clean Air Interstate Rule. The sulfur and nitrogen cap-and-trade plan was thrown out by a federal court in 2008 but has been put back in place temporarily until EPA can come up with a new program.

"We have a number of different things to work out on carbon," said Alexander. "But there's no excuse for waiting a minute on SOx, NOx and mercury because we have the technology. We know what to do, and we shouldn't be operating coal plants without pollution control equipment because of the effect it has on our health, on our jobs."

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