Senate Bill Creates Cap-And-Trade for SO2, NOx

A bi-partisan group of US Senators has introduced legislation that would amend the Clean Air Act to create a cap-and-trade system. The catch is, it would not be a system for the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2). 

Rather, it would cap and reduce mercury emissions by 90% from coal-fired power plants and tighten national limits on emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx). These are lofty goals, despite the fact that it sidesteps the elephant in the room.

Sens. Tom Carper (D-Del.) and Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) introduced the legislation with co-sponsors Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), Edward Kaufman (D-Del.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), Joe Lieberman (ID-Conn.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine).

The legislation establishes a nationwide trading systems for SO2 and NOX emissions. SO2 emissions would be reduced 80% by 2018. NOx emissions would be cut 53% by 2015.

Mercury emissions would be reduced by EPA by utilizing the "maximum available control technology."

Sen. Carper said: “The Clean Air Act Amendments of 2010 provides us an opportunity to work across the aisle, something we do too rarely these days. Passage will not only help us clean up our nation’s power sector and our nation’s air, it also will provide the certainly and predictability that an important industry in America needs. And, it provides us an opportunity to work with utilities, with environmentalists, and with towns and communities across America to improve the lives and health of tens of millions of Americans in the years to come.”

EPA is moving forward with enhanced National Air Ambient Quality Standards to reduce these pollutants, and when these requirements are implemented, as many as 650 counties nationwide could be considered out of compliance and therefore subject to stricter air quality standards, which makes it very difficult to create and retain jobs. Sponsors of this bill said it will help communities meet these air quality standards, so that new manufacturers can get clean air permits so they can build new facilities–and hire new workers for cleantech jobs.

It has been 20 years since Congress tightened the Clean Air Act. The EPA has tried to regulate stricter controls on nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide and mercury since the late 1990s, but court challenges have invalidated those proposals.

“This bill is about good health, tourism and jobs. Half a million Tennesseans suffer from asthma, and 400,000 of them are at risk because of poor air quality, so we must act now on getting these harmful pollutants out of the air. Mercury can contaminate our crops and water supply, ultimately harming brain function and other vital organs, and is especially harmful to children and pregnant women. Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides can contribute to respiratory illness and other lung diseases,” said Sen. Alexander. “And millions of people come to the Smokies every year to see the ‘blue haze’ the Cherokees sang about, not the grey smog that power plant emissions help to create. Tennessee cities by themselves will not be able to make our air clean enough to comply with new EPA regulations and attract auto suppliers and other new jobs to Tennessee unless strong national standards stop dirty air from blowing into Tennessee from other states.”