Bush Seeks to Curb Power Plant Emissions, Sets Climate Goals

President Bush asked Congress on Thursday to set new limits on three pollutants spewed by power plants and to create a trading system that would give the utilities financial incentives to reduce emissions.

The president also outlined a new policy to tackle global warming by using voluntary incentives and tax breaks to slow the growth rate of greenhouse gas emissions relative to economic growth.

Bush says his “cap-and-trade” power plant initiative would cut acid-rain-producing sulfur dioxide by 73% and smog-producing nitrogen oxide by 67% by 2018. It would also reduce emissions of mercury, which can delay mental and physical development in children, by 69% over the same period, he said.

“This legislation will constitute the most significant step America has ever taken . . . to cut power plant emissions that contribute to urban smog, acid rain and numerous health problems for our citizens,” Bush said in an address at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Environmentalists took issue with the president’s assessment of his proposals, saying that the distant deadlines set by his power plant plan would delay reductions in pollution levels already required by current clean air law.

They also complained that under his strategy America would continue to increase emissions of carbon dioxide while the rest of the developed world struggles to cut emissions below 1990 levels. Many scientists believe that carbon dioxide is a leading contributor to global warming.

The president’s power plant bill is modeled on the successful acid rain control program created by the 1990 Clean Air Act amendments, which rely on a cap-and-trade system to obtain deep cuts in emissions of sulfur dioxide by 2010.

Under the programs, power plants are given pollution allowances, or credits, which they can trade with each other for money. A portion of the credits is retired over time, making it increasingly more expensive to pollute and spurring companies to reduce emissions.

The president’s climate-change proposal placed the United States out of sync with the rest of the developed world, which has adopted the Kyoto Protocol, a 1997 agreement reached at a meeting in Kyoto, Japan, that seeks to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2012 by an average of 5.2% below 1990 levels.

Bush’s announcement is expected to be received coolly abroad, where leaders in Europe and Japan have expressed displeasure with the president’s decision last spring to walk away from the Kyoto accord.

But Bush argued that cutting greenhouse gases would deeply damage the American economy.

“As president of the United States, charged with safeguarding the welfare of the American people and American workers, I will not commit our nation to an unsound international treaty that will throw millions of our citizens out of work,” Bush said.

Environmentalists countered that it is possible to cut emissions without hurting the economy. They said Britain and Germany have reduced greenhouse gases below 1990 levels by 10% and 8%, respectively, while maintaining economic growth.

In Thursday’s speech, the president outlined ways he hopes to prod the country and the developing world to voluntarily limit the increases in the level of greenhouse gases. His plan seeks $555 million from Congress next year, as part of $4.6 billion over five years, for tax credits to spur investments in solar, wind and other renewable energy sources. One proposal would provide tax credits of up to $4,000 to people who buy new gasoline-electric hybrid cars and small trucks and up to $8,000 to people who buy fuel-cell vehicles from 2002 to 2007.

Carbon dioxide is produced by burning petroleum, coal and other fossil fuels. If the nation relied more heavily on renewable energy sources, which do not create carbon dioxide, it could limit its greenhouse gas emissions.

The president also asked Congress to increase funding for climate science research and challenged businesses to make specific commitments to restrain emissions of carbon dioxide.

Environmentalists and some members of Congress said the president passed up opportunities for making significant dents in U.S. carbon dioxide emissions by not calling for mandatory reductions of emissions, tough fuel efficiency standards in cars or proposals to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from power plants, as he had promised in his campaign.

Sen. James M. Jeffords (I-Vt.), chairman of the Senate committee drafting legislation to cut pollutants from power plants, said the president’s plan is like a “three-legged horse,” because it does not regulate carbon dioxide emissions.

Market-driven strategies have gained great favor in recent years as an alternative to regulation by government edict, although some programs around the nation have run into problems. Pollution trading schemes in Los Angeles, New Jersey and Michigan have failed to deliver reductions as promised, and have drawn fire from environmentalists, auditors and regulators.

The president said that expanding the cap-and-trade program for sulfur dioxide and creating similar programs for nitrogen oxide and mercury will harness the power of the market to reduce pollution faster than through regulations. It will also avoid the years of delay caused when companies sue the government over regulations.

“This will get substantially greater reductions than the current Clean Air Act over 10 years,” said Jeffrey Holmstead, head of the Environmental Protection Agency’s air office. “I understand there are people out there saying this is a ruse to gut the Clean Air Act. That’s just not true.”

Holmstead said he was optimistic that Congress would embrace this approach to controlling pollutants from power plants either this year or next year.

But environmentalists warned that the caps envisioned by the administration are not tough enough, nor are the deadlines soon enough.

“Delaying cleanup of these plants will cause more asthma attacks and more cardiopulmonary disease for thousands of Americans,” said David Hawkins of the Natural Resources Defense Council. “And we will see many more premature deaths.”

Some environmentalists argued that the cap-and-trade system may not go far enough.

“He is essentially asking us to buy a Ferrari but telling us not to drive it faster than 50 mph,” said Joseph Goffman, senior attorney for Environmental Defense.

Even some members of Bush’s party in Congress agreed.

“I am concerned that the deadlines and caps in the president’s proposal may not go far enough beyond those in current law,” said Rep. Sherwood L. Boehlert (R-N.Y.).

Nonetheless, Boehlert predicted that the president’s power plant proposal will break the deadlocked debate in Congress on clean air.