[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2643 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







110th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 2643

    To amend the Clean Air Act to require the Administrator of the 
 Environmental Protection Agency to promulgate regulations to control 
     hazardous air pollutant emissions from electric utility steam 
                           generating units.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           February 14, 2008

   Mr. Carper (for himself, Ms. Collins, Mr. Kennedy, Mr. Biden, Mr. 
Kerry, Mr. Menendez, Mr. Alexander, Mr. Lieberman, Mr. Lautenberg, and 
  Mr. Gregg) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
       referred to the Committee on Environment and Public Works

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
    To amend the Clean Air Act to require the Administrator of the 
 Environmental Protection Agency to promulgate regulations to control 
     hazardous air pollutant emissions from electric utility steam 
                           generating units.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Mercury Emissions Control Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES.

    (a) Findings.--Congress finds that--
            (1) mercury pollution is a serious hazard to human health 
        and the environment in the United States;
            (2) more than 45 percent of the industrial mercury 
        emissions of the United States come from coal-fired power 
        plants;
            (3) of the mercury deposited in the United States, 60 
        percent comes from United States sources;
            (4) human exposure to methylmercury, the most toxic form of 
        mercury, comes almost exclusively from consuming fish and 
        shellfish;
            (5) mercury released into the atmosphere is deposited into 
        waterways, where the mercury collects in the tissue of fish as 
        methylmercury at concentrations of up to 10,000,000 times that 
        of the mercury concentration in the surrounding water;
            (6) each year, approximately 630,000 children are born 
        having been exposed to dangerous levels of methylmercury in the 
        womb, placing the children at risk of neurological problems, 
        including poor performance on neurobehavioral tests, especially 
        on tests of--
                    (A) fine motor function;
                    (B) attention;
                    (C) language;
                    (D) visual-spatial abilities; and
                    (E) memory;
            (7) exposure of humans and animals of all ages to 
        methylmercury adversely impacts the cardiovascular system, 
        blood pressure regulation, and heart-rate variability, and 
        contributes to heart disease;
            (8) the monetary benefit of reducing those health outcomes 
        is estimated to be in the billions of dollars;
            (9) reducing coal-fired power plant mercury emissions by 90 
        percent is--
                    (A) feasible by calendar year 2010 using current 
                methods, such as activated carbon injection technology 
                and fabric filters; and
                    (B) projected to result in annual financial 
                benefits of up to $5,200,000,000;
            (10) the addition of a scrubber can reduce mercury 
        emissions by up to 98 percent from a bituminous coal-fired 
        power plant;
            (11) activated carbon injection technology has been 
        successfully used to control mercury emissions from municipal 
        waste incinerators, leading to reductions from 45.2 tons in 
        1990 to 2.2 tons in 2000;
            (12) the capital cost of activated carbon injection 
        equipment is minimal, at less than $3 per kilowatt;
            (13) the final rules of the Environmental Protection Agency 
        entitled ``Revision of December 2000 Regulatory Finding on the 
        Emissions of Hazardous Air Pollutants From Electric Utility 
        Steam Generating Units and the Removal of Coal- and Oil-Fired 
        Electric Utility Steam Generating Units from the Section 112(c) 
        List'' (70 Fed. Reg. 15994 (March 29, 2005)) and ``Standards of 
        Performance for New and Existing Stationary Sources: Electric 
        Utility Steam Generating Units'' (70 Fed. Reg 28606) (May 18, 
        2005)) (commonly known as the ``Clean Air Mercury Rule''), 
        which were vacated by the United States Court of Appeals for 
        the District of Columbia Circuit, would have reduced mercury 
        emissions by only 50 percent by 2020;
            (14) in enacting Public Law 101-549 (commonly known as the 
        ``Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990'') (42 U.S.C. 7401 et seq.), 
        Congress included a list of 188 hazardous air pollutants, 
        including mercury, to be regulated under section 112 of the 
        Clean Air Act (42 U.S.C. 7412); and
            (15) section 112 of that Act requires regulation of 
        hazardous air pollutants using maximum achievable control 
        technology.
    (b) Purposes.--The purposes of this Act are--
            (1) to require the Administrator of the Environmental 
        Protection Agency to promulgate regulations to control 
        hazardous air pollutant emissions from electric utility steam 
        generating units; and
            (2) to ensure that those regulations accurately reflect the 
        availability of highly effective controls.

SEC. 3. EMISSIONS FROM ELECTRIC UTILITY STEAM GENERATING UNITS.

    Section 112(n)(1) of the Clean Air Act (42 U.S.C. 7412(n)(1)) is 
amended by adding at the end the following:
                    ``(D) Regulations.--
                            ``(i) Proposal.--Not later than 180 days 
                        after the date of enactment of the Mercury 
                        Emissions Control Act, but in no case later 
                        than October 1, 2008, the Administrator shall 
                        propose regulations under subsection (d) to 
                        control the emission from new and existing 
                        electric utility steam generating units of 
                        hazardous air pollutants, including mercury 
                        pollutants.
                            ``(ii) Requirement.--The regulations 
                        adopted from the proposed regulations under 
                        clause (i) shall require a reduction in 
                        emissions of mercury from new and existing 
                        electric utility steam generating units of not 
                        less than 90 percent.''.
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