U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander Tuesday released the following statement on the Environmental Protection Agency’s issuance of a rule regulating greenhouse gas emissions from new power plants:
“We have the technology and know-how to remove nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide, and mercury from coal plant emissions and we should do it—we don’t have a good way to do remove carbon dioxide from coal. Determining how to regulate carbon dioxide is the job of Congress, not the EPA.”
Sen. Alexander last year cosponsored the Energy Tax Prevention Act of 2011 by Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), which would have prohibited the EPA from regulating greenhouse gas emissions while leaving intact all of the essential provisions of the Clean Air Act, a law that protects Americans from pollution that has direct public health impacts.
Sen. Alexander in 2010 cosponsored a resolution of disapproval that would have banned the EPA from moving forward with its planned regulation of greenhouse gas emissions.