Senate Kills Bush Pollution
Bill
ABC News
Senate Panel Deadlocks Over Pollution Bill
Senate Panel Deadlocks Over Top Bush Environmental Priority to
Extend Air Pollution Deadlines
By JOHN HEILPRIN Associated Press Writer
Mar 9, 2005
WASHINGTON Mar 9, 2005 — President Bush's top
environmental priority giving power plants, factories and
refineries more time to reduce their air pollution suffered a
major setback Wednesday as a Republican-controlled committee
rejected it in the Senate.
The Environment and Public Works Committee deadlocked on a 9-9
vote on Bush's "clear skies" bill, a name that Sen. Barbara
Boxer, D-Calif., described as "akin to calling Frankenstein Tom
Cruise."
The tie vote came after weeks of fruitless negotiation to get
a bare majority required to recommend the bill to the full
Senate. The committee vote doesn't preclude GOP leaders from
scheduling the bill for floor action anyway, but they would have
fewer parliamentary tactics available to pass it over Democratic
objections.
Committee members from both parties, however, held out hope
that a compromise could still be reached later this year, perhaps
through an amendment to another of Bush's legislative priorities,
a comprehensive energy bill.
Visiting Ohio, Bush renewed his call for Congress to act on
the bill, saying it will "protect the environment and the
economy." Not mentioning the Senate committee vote, he told an
audience in Columbus it would "allow Ohio counties to meet strict
environmental standards while keeping your commitment to
coal."
Ohio utilities are prominent users of coal to generate
electricity.
Despite Wednesday's vote, the Bush administration planned on
Thursday to do by regulation some of what Bush still wants
Congress to do by law. The Environmental Protection Agency will
release a new regulation to cut smog-forming nitrogen oxides and
acid rain-causing sulfur dioxide from coal-burning power plants,
most of them east of the Mississippi River. That measure is
intended to curtail pollution that often travels long distances
across state lines.
Bush had proposed amending the law to reduce nitrogen oxides,
sulfur dioxide and mercury in the air by letting smokestack
industries trade pollution rights among themselves within overall
caps set by the government. Opponents wanted a plan that also
would address global warming by regulating carbon dioxide
emissions, and said Bush's changes would weaken the 1970 Clean
Air Act, last amended in 1990.
"It's a shame that the U.S. Congress is the last bastion of
denial on climate change," said Sen. Lincoln Chafee, R-R.I., who
joined with Sen. James Jeffords, I-Vt., and seven Democrats in
defeating the bill in committee.
Environmentalists and public health advocates praised the
committee's vote.
"Timely, strong enforcement of the current Clean Air Act will
provide greater pollution reductions sooner than the pro-industry
approach rejected by Congress," said John L. Kirkwood, president
of the American Lung Association.
The utility industry's Edison Electric Institute said it would
continue to fight for the bill.
"The rationale behind this legislation is simple," EEI
President Thomas R. Kuhn said. "Sensible multi-emission
legislation can reduce power plant emissions faster, with greater
certainty, and more cost-effectively than current programs."
Inhofe had shortened by two years the 2018 deadline Bush
proposed for reducing the three pollutants by 70 percent, and
added $650 million to subsidize utilities for installing
carbon-control equipment.
That still couldn't sway Democrats like Max Baucus of Montana,
which has the nation's largest coal reserves. He suggested
starting from scratch for a compromise later this year, since
"sometimes things have to be torn apart before they can be put
back together again."
Among the most impassioned about the defeat were Sens. George
Voinovich, R-Ohio, and Thomas Carper, D-Del., who led most of the
committee's negotiations.
Voinovich said the bill was about nothing less than keeping
coal "our most abundant and cheapest energy source part of our
energy future."
Carper angrily described the White House and EPA as having
stonewalled the bill's opponents when they requested more
information. "That's got to end," he said.
http://epw.senate.gov Senate Environment Committee:
http://www.epa.gov Environmental Protection Agency:
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