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Senate Bill 150
Clean Power Act of 2005

S. 150 is a multi-pollutant legislative proposal (or 4-P bill) that would establish national tonnage caps for nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, mercury, and carbon dioxide.  The bill proposes emissions reductions of sulfur dioxide by 81% from 2000 levels, to a 2.25 million ton cap; reductions of nitrogen oxides by 71% from 2000 levels, to 1.51 million tons; and reductions of carbon dioxide by 21% below 2000 levels, or 2.05 billion tons.  Mercury would be capped at 90% below 1999 levels, or 5 tons.

The Clean Power Act is more aggressive than the Clear Skies Act and the Clean Air Planning Act both in terms of timing and the reduction targets that it proposes.  Like the Clean Air Planning Act, it caps carbon dioxide emissions.

The Clean Power Act was introduced in the Senate on January 25, 2005 by U.S. Senators Jim Jeffords (I-VT), Susan Collins (R-ME), and Joseph Lieberman (D-CT).  Cosponsors of the bill include U.S. Senators Olympia Snowe (R–ME), Patrick Leahy (D–VT), Charles Schumer (D-NY), Joseph Biden (D-DE), Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Hillary Clinton (D-NY), Jon Corzine (D–NJ), Chris Dodd (D–CT), Russ Feingold (D-WI), Diane Feinstein (D-CA), Edward Kennedy (D-MA), John Kerry (D-MA), Frank Lautenberg (D–NJ), Jack Reed (D–RI), Paul Sarbanes (D–MD), and Ron Wyden (D–OR).

Primary Sponsors (Link to website: )

Senator Jeffords, Jim (D-VT)

Senator Collins, Susan (R-ME)

Senator Lieberman, Joseph (D-CT)



 

Statments at the introduction of the Clean Power Act of 2005

Senator Jeffords: This bill, which is sponsored by 19 Senators from 12 states, representing more than 91 million Americans, will require power plants to reduce pollution faster and use 21st Century technology to clean our air.  Fossil fuel power plants are the nation’s single largest source of air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.  Air pollution in the United States continues to cause at least 25,000 premature deaths, thousands of heart attacks, and several million lost workdays nationwide every year due to asthma and other respiratory ailments.  We cannot keep ignoring air pollution from these sources and its effect on human health and the atmosphere.

Senator Collins: Coal-fired power plants that exploit loopholes in the Clean Air Act are the single largest source of air pollution, mercury contamination, and greenhouse gas emissions in the nation.  A single coal-fired power plant can emit more pollutants than all of the cars, factories, and businesses in Maine combined.  I am especially concerned about the continued rise in greenhouse gas emissions.  In light of the rapid warming in the Arctic and the significance that this warming portends for the rest of the planet, reducing carbon dioxide emissions is a step that we can no longer afford to put off.

For more see the press release from the U.S. Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works.