Senate panel to meet on utility pollution limits
Date: 30-Aug-01
Country: USA
The invitation-only session, billed as a meeting for "major stakeholders," will be held Sept. 11-12 in Washington.
Officials at the Edison Electric Institute, the largest utility lobbying group, said they will attend the meeting.
Jeffords, an independent from Vermont who chairs the committee, has introduced a bill with Democrat Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut that would cut power plant emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, mercury and carbon dioxide.
That bill differs from a Bush Administration proposal that would exclude carbon dioxide emissions. The Environmental Protection Agency is currently circulating a proposal for phased in cuts of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and mercury emitted by power plants from 2008 through 2012.
The Bush administration's reluctance to impose stricter limits before 2008 is drawing fire from some lawmakers on Capitol Hill. The timetable also pushes the first mandated cuts to 2008, the potential end of President George W. Bush's second term - should he be re-elected.
The bill offered by Jeffords and Senate Democrats also includes cuts in emissions of carbon dioxide, which scientists have linked to global warming. The Bush administration does not want carbon dioxide included in legislation.
A similar bill in the House of Representatives is sponsored by California Democrat Rep. Henry Waxman.