[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 169 (Monday, November 7, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7157-S7158]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. ALEXANDER (for himself and Mr. Pryor):
  S. 1815. A bill to codify and delay the implemenlation of and 
compliance dates for a final rule relating to interstate transport of 
air pollution; to the Committee on Environment and Public Works.
  Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, later this week the Senate will vote on 
a resolution to disapprove the Clean Air Act rule designed to limit the 
blowing of powerplant pollution from one State to another. In my 
opinion, overturning the rule would throw the matter back to 
regulators, back to courts, back to lawsuits, and back into a delay.
  Senator Pryor of Arkansas and I are introducing today S. 1815. We 
have sent it to the desk. It is bipartisan legislation that will 
provide what we believe is a better approach, and that approach is to 
enact the clean air rule into law but give utilities 1 additional year 
in which to comply with it. Our approach would provide certainty and 
cleaner air at the lowest possible cost to ratepayers.
  The motion to overturn the clean air rule will be offered by the 
junior Senator from Kentucky, Mr. Paul.
  Tennesseans admire much about our Kentucky neighbors. We admire their 
bluegrass, we admire their basketball, we admire their distinguished 
Senators. But Tennesseans don't want Kentucky's State income tax, and 
we don't want Kentucky's dirty air. We also know our neighbors in North 
Carolina don't want Tennessee's dirty air blowing into North Carolina 
because they have told us that through lawsuits in the courts, which 
they have won.
  Air pollution blowing from one State into another makes our citizens 
sick, especially our younger Tennesseans and our older Tennesseans. Air 
pollution blowing from other States into our State is a jobs issue. 
Pollution makes our Great Smoky Mountains more like the ``Great Smoggy 
Mountains.'' We like to see our mountains and we like for the 9 million 
visitors who come to visit us every year to stay a long time and to 
spend a lot of money because that supports our schools and it supports 
our State revenue.
  Dirty air blowing into Tennessee from other States makes it harder 
for us to create jobs in yet another way. I remember 30 years ago when 
I was Governor of Tennessee and the Nissan corporation came to our 
State. The very first thing Nissan did when it came to Tennessee was to 
go down to the State Air Quality Board and ask for an air quality 
permit in order to operate its paint plant. Fortunately, the air 
quality in the Nashville area was clean enough that Nissan could locate 
there. If Nissan hadn't been able to obtain an air quality permit to 
operate its paint plant, it would have been in Georgia or some other 
State. As a result the auto jobs which have come to Tennessee in the 
tens of thousands over the last 30 years would most likely have went to 
some other State.
  So dirty air blowing from Kentucky into Tennessee or Tennessee into 
North Carolina or from any State into another State makes it harder for 
the recipient State's communities to get their quality permits. It 
makes it harder, for example, for us to say to Volkswagen and its 
suppliers: We can provide a home to you because our air is clean enough 
so that you can get our air quality permit.
  Mr. President, in 2005, the Bush administration first put into place 
the predecessor to the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule that we will be 
voting on later this week. Federal courts found that the Bush rule was 
flawed in some technical respects and ordered the Environmental 
Protection Agency to write a new rule, which some now seek to overturn 
by means of the Congressional Review Act. The Bush clean air rule that 
was put in place in 2005 has now been there for 6 years. Many utilities 
have already taken steps to comply with it.
  The pollution standards in the new rule we will be voting on are 
about the same as those established in the 2005 Bush rule. As an 
example of costs, the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Nation's largest 
public utility, tells us that complying with the amended rule will cost 
its ratepayers between $1 and $2 a month.
  We often hear, and I will have to say that a lot of those comments 
often come from our side of the aisle, that it is the job of Congress, 
not the bureaucrats and the courts, to write the clean air rules. The 
commonsense legislation that Senator Pryor and I offer today is an 
opportunity for Congress to do its job in a way that will clean the air 
at the lowest possible cost to ratepayers.

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