Tom Carper (D-Del) Slams Bush On "Clear Skies"

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The Bush administration's environmental chief Thursday defended the White House's proposed "Clear Skies" plan as the "clear choice" to curb power plant emissions, citing a newly released analysis and comparison with competing legislation. Delaware Democratic Sen. Tom Carper -- an author of one alternative -- promptly said that his plan would do better than the administration's approach, for "marginally" higher costs.

It was the latest exchange in a multiyear fight over action needed to reduce sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and mercury emissions from power plants. Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide are key ingredients in the smog and tiny particle pollution that continues to trouble much of the nation some 15 years after Congress passed a landmark Clean Air law.

Administration and utility officials have argued that current laws encourage costly lawsuits and delays in pollution controls. Legislative reforms, they said, could cut emissions from 3,300 power plants by 9 million tons annually through caps on emissions and industry spending on control systems. "I've looked at the choice of regulation and litigation versus Clear Skies legislation," Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen L. Johnson said. "To me, Clear Skies is the clear choice. It delivers dramatic health benefits across the nation without raising energy costs."

Carper said Bush's plan does little better than current law, and said that his proposal would deliver more benefits faster while also commencing controls on heat-trapping carbon dioxide emissions that have been linked to global warming and climate change. "Despite all the grand pronouncements from this White House that carbon controls would ruin the economy, their analysis shows that quite the opposite is true," Carper said in a statement. "Our carbon-trading program would cost just a dollar per ton, yet it would jump-start our efforts to control carbon emissions and do something about global warming. If we can do that and do it cheaply, what are we waiting for?" Carper's measure would add carbon dioxide to the list of pollutants that would be capped and reduced. The bill generally relies on a system of nationwide allowances, or credits, for utility pollution levels and a program that permits cleaner-burning plants to sell or trade credits to companies unable to meet targets.

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