[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 99 (Wednesday, July 14, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8511-S8512]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. JEFFORDS (for himself, Mr. Lieberman, Mr. Moynihan, Mr. 
        Schumer, Mr. Kerry, Mr. Lautenberg, Mr. Dodd, and Mr. Kennedy):
  S. 1369. A bill to enhance the benefits of the national electric 
system by encouraging and supporting State programs for renewable 
energy sources, universal electric service, affordable electric 
service, and energy conservation and efficiency, and for other 
purposes; to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.


                        Clean Energy Act of 1999

  Mr. Jeffords. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce the Clean 
Energy Act of 1999, for myself and Senators Lieberman, Moynihan, 
Schumer, Kerry, Lautenberg, Dodd, and Kennedy.
  Air pollution from dirty power plants threatens the health of lakes, 
forests, and people across our Nation. Today, we call for an end to 
code red air pollution alerts, smog filled afternoons and chemical 
induced haze. Today, we will introduce legislation to protect our 
environment from the damaging effects of air pollution and move our 
Nation closer to a sensible energy future.
  Why should we live with smog, acid rain and code red summer 
afternoons when the technology is here to capture the sun and wind in 
our backyard? It is time for our Nation to transition from smokestacks, 
coal power and smog to a future with windmills, solar power and blue 
skies. Like the wall in Berlin, we hope to watch the dirty power plants 
dismantled brick, by brick, knowing that once again we can breath 
freely.
  As the U.S. PIRG report indicates, air pollution produced from dirty 
power plants has skyrocketed. With recent wholesale deregulation, coal 
fired power plants increased their output almost 16%. This has got to 
end.
  Electric utility deregulation has the potential to save consumers 
millions of dollars in energy costs. At the same time, deregulation can 
move us away from reliance on dirty fossil fuels. A study by the Union 
of Concerned Scientists showed that we can decrease electricity prices 
by 13% while still achieving great public and environmental benefits.
  Electricity prices in the Northeast are double those in the Midwest. 
Under current law, old, dirty coal fired power plants in the Midwest 
are exempt from the same air quality standards that our plants meet. 
Their emissions settle into our streams, forests, eyes, and lungs. They 
get the benefit, we get the cost.
  Not anymore. Our bill will level the playing field for clean 
Northeast utility companies. It will knock dirty upwind coal burners 
out of the competitive arena. It will give our utilities the ability to 
compete successfully in deregulated markets.
  Our proposal will cap emissions from generation facilities, forcing 
old coal plants to meet tighter air quality standards or shut down. We 
attack pollutants that lead to smog, acid rain, mercury contamination 
and ground-level ozone.
  Our bill will put in place a nation-wide wires charge to create an 
electric benefit fund to develop renewable energy sources and promote 
energy efficiency and universal access. It will mandate that generation 
facilities purchase increasing percentages of renewable power each 
year. We begin at 2.5% in 2000 and increase to 20% renewables by 2020. 
Either buy renewables, or don't play in the market place.
  Our legislation will make it cheaper and easier for consumers to 
install renewable energy sources in their homes, farms, and small 
businesses by simplifying the metering process. And finally, our bill 
has a comprehensive disclosure provision, giving consumers honest and 
verifiable information regarding their energy choices.
  Our Nation's future depends on clean, reliable energy. We can end 
dirty air from tall utility smokestacks. We can capture the global 
market for renewable energy. We can stop acid rain from killing our 
forests and we can keep our summer days from being ozone days. We can 
increase our energy security. And we can do all this while saving 
consumers millions of dollars on their utility bills.

[[Page S8512]]

  Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, I am pleased today to join with my 
distinguished colleague from Vermont to introduce the Clean Energy Act 
of 1999. This landmark legislation provides a comprehensive, long-term 
blueprint for fulfilling the promise of fishable rivers, swimable 
streams, and clean, breathable air as envisioned by the ground-breaking 
Clean Water and Clean Air Acts.
  As Senator Jeffords has explained, the Clean Energy Act would reduce 
emissions of the full range of pollutants that damage human health and 
the global environment. The public health standards embodied in this 
bill are ambitious. But they reflect the significant strides 
Northeastern utilities have made in recent years to reduce pollution 
from electric power plants. They also reflect the reality that goals 
can, and must, be achieved regionally and nationally if we are to 
ensure clean air and clean water for every community.
  As utilities invest in control technologies to help them meet 
existing and future clean air requirements, they face difficult 
choices. Some technologies control for one pollutant, while 
exacerbating emissions of another and often utilities make large 
capital investments without knowing what pollutant reductions may be 
required of them in the future. The Clean Energy Act will bring order 
to the equation by providing a comprehensive but flexible guide for 
controlling the full range of pollutants associated with electricity 
generation, including nitrogen oxides, sulphur dioxide, mercury, and 
carbon.
  The Clean Energy Act will help reduce emissions of nitrogen oxides 
that lead to smog that makes it difficult for children, asthmatics, and 
the elderly to breathe. It will help reduce acid rain by reducing the 
amount of sulphur that our smokestacks pump into the air.
  The bill will accelerate efforts to make the fish in rivers safe to 
eat by lowering the amount of mercury introduced into the food chain. 
And it will help reduce the U.S. contribution to the problem of climate 
change by recognizing carbon dioxide as a pollutant of the global 
atmosphere.
  Last year, I introduced a bill designed to close a loophole in the 
Clean Air Act that exempts older power plants from rigorous 
environmental standards. We know that to ensure fairness in an era of 
increasing competitiveness, we must strengthen pollution controls so 
that dirty power plants don't gain an unfair share of the market while 
polluting at higher rates than cleaner, more efficient utilities. The 
Clean Energy Act builds on the effort begun last year, by requiring all 
plants, no matter what their vintage, to meet the same standards.
  Electricity deregulation carries the promise of enormous benefits for 
the consumer--mainly in reduced electric bills--which I strongly 
support. But electricity deregulation can also cause adverse 
environmental and public health consequences if we don't do it right.
  The principles behind the Clean Energy Act--comprehensive control of 
pollutants and equitable across-the-board standards, enhanced by 
emissions trading--provide a vision for how the electricity industry 
and our economy can grow even as we improve the quality of our air and 
water for generations to come.
 Mr. KERRY. Mr. President, I rise today to make a few remarks 
in support of the Clean Energy Act of 1999.
  There is a strong consensus in Congress, and throughout the nation, 
that it is time to restructure our electric utility industry. The 
driving force behind this consensus is the potential to save working 
families and businesses billions of dollars in their electricity bills 
as competition replaces regulated markets and drives down costs.
  The Clinton Administration has estimated that the nation may save as 
much as $20 billion through restructuring, and other estimates are even 
higher. Some twenty states, including Massachusetts, have already acted 
to bring competition to their state industry and capture these savings.
  In addition to saving billions of dollars, electric utility 
restructuring also presents us with the opportunity to enhance 
environmental protections. The Clean Energy Act of 1999 advances 
environmental goals that I believe should be considered as part of the 
final electric utility restructuring proposal passed by the Senate--and 
that is why I am an original cosponsor.
  I know that some in Congress have argued that we should not include 
environmental protections in a utility restructuring proposal. I think 
that would be a grave mistake, because some--by no means all--power 
plants are the source of too much pollution to be ignored.
  In Massachusetts, for example, five power plants release more than 90 
percent of the pollution from power plants in the state. If each of 
these plants met modern standards, it would reduce as much pollution as 
taking more than 750,000 cars off the road. And, while Massachusetts 
struggles with some of these dirty plants, many more can be found in 
the Midwest and other parts of the nation.
  The consequences of this pollution are significant. In the Northeast 
we experience frequent and widespread violations of national health 
standards for ozone. Long-term exposure to ozone may increase the 
incidence of respiratory disease and premature aging of the lungs. Acid 
deposition, whose source may be plants far outside of the Northeast, 
degrades public health and damages aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. 
Mercury, which is highly poisonous, accumulates in aquatic species. 
Finally, carbon dioxide pollution continues to accumulate in the 
atmosphere and increase the potential for destructive and irreversible 
climate change.
  The Clean Energy Act of 1999 would put in place important public 
health and environmental policies. Most importantly, it would level the 
playing field by requiring old, heavily-polluting power plants that are 
now exempt from health and environmental standards, to clean up. This 
is important for New England, because while many of these plants are 
located in the Midwest, their pollution is carried through weather 
patterns to our air, forests, lakes, streams and lungs.
  We should close this loophole. Many energy companies have achieved 
environmental improvements, and those achievements should not be 
minimized, but the fact remains that electricity generation from old, 
heavily-polluting power plants increased 15.8 percent from 1992 to 
1998, nationwide.
  I want to add that I have heard from the citizens of Massachusetts 
who live around old coal and oil plants that pollute far more than 
newer plants. They feel strongly that all plants should comply with 
environmental standards and employ the best environmental technology, 
and that no family should be forced to live in the shadows of a plant 
that may cause environmental harm.
  In addition to having tougher standards and closing loopholes in 
current law, the Act would require the Environmental Protection Agency 
to review any plant that emits excessive pollution through pollution 
permit trading to determine whether it is causing adverse local 
environmental and health impacts. As a result, the bill allows for 
robust trading so that we can capture all of its economic and broader 
environmental benefits, but only when it does not harm local 
communities.
  Finally, other provisions of the Act will benefit the environment and 
make the U.S. a leader in clean energy technologies. For example, it 
would require that a percentage of the Nation's power is generated by 
solar, wind and other renewable sources. For years we have given 
heavily-polluting plants a free ride. Now it is time to reverse course 
and create a market force to bolster our renewable energy technologies 
so that we will have a growing clean power industry as we start the 
21st Century.
  I thank Senator Jeffords for introducing the Clean Energy Act of 
1999, and I am pleased to join Senators Lieberman, Moynihan, Schumer, 
Kennedy, Dodd, and Lautenberg as an original cosponsor. I hope this 
legislation will help shape the Senate debate over utility 
restructuring and ensure that provisions to protect the environment and 
the public health will be part of the final legislation.
                                 ______