Legislation requiring significant cuts in emissions from electric power plants, including carbon dioxide, squeaked out of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee by a vote of 10 to 9 on June 27, over the objections of the Bush administration.
The bill (S. 556), sponsored by Sen. Jim Jeffords (I-VT), the committee’s chairman, would require emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxide (NOx) to be reduced by 83 percent, mercury by 90 percent, and carbon dioxide (CO2) by 23 percent, all by 2008.