By Richard Cowan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A bipartisan group of U.S. senators on Thursday introduced legislation aimed at slashing emissions of sulfur dioxide, mercury and nitrogen oxide from smokestacks including coal-fired power plants.
The measure, which has stalled in Congress in years past, also would set up nationwide trading systems for sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide pollution permits, its sponsors said.
But it does not tackle the much larger and controversial question of how to reduce carbon dioxide emissions blamed for climate change. Separate negotiations are underway on a greenhouse gas emissions bill.
Democratic Senator Thomas Carper, a main sponsor of the legislation unveiled on Thursday, complained that legal challenges have held up Environmental Protection Agency regulations to reduce emissions of these gases.
He now wants Congress to expand the Clean Air Act to allow Washington to mandate emissions reductions of these gases.
"Passage will not only help us clean up our nation's power sector and our nation's air, it also will provide the certainty and predictability" industry is seeking, Carper said.
Last November, EPA proposed new air quality regulations for sulfur dioxide emissions.
Supporters of the legislation say it would save 215,000 lives and more than $2 trillion in health care costs by 2025, while costing less than $2 a month as companies install smokestack "scrubbers" and other clean air technologies.
The pollution has been linked to asthma attacks, heart disease, strokes, lung cancer and other illnesses.
Republican Senator Lamar Alexander, who opposes federal mandates to reduce carbon emissions, said there was "no excuse for waiting" to impose reductions on the other gases, adding that technology exists to do so.
Under their bill, SO2 emissions, which can return to earth as "acid rain," would fall by 80 percent, from 7.6 million tons in 2008 to 1.5 million in 2018; NOx pollution would fall by 53 percent, from 3 million tons to 1.6 million tons and mercury emissions would decline by at least 90 percent by 2015.
Health and environmental groups said the proposal would "provide critical public health and ecosystem protection."
(Editing by Alan Elsner)
(c) Reuters 2012. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by caching, framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.
