On a stormy day that prevented President Bush from visiting the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, he said "it would sure be helpful" if Congress would pass the air pollution proposal he calls "Clear Skies" legislation.
The legislation is Bush's top environmental priority, and would give power plants, factories and refineries more time to reduce their air pollution.
Last month, a Senate committee rejected the bill. Opponents want a plan that also puts limits on carbon dioxide, the "greenhouse" gas scientists blame for global warming, which Bush opposes regulating.
Bush's proposal would reduce nitrogen oxides, a big factor in smog; sulfur dioxide, which is blamed for acid rain; and mercury, a toxic chemical that contaminates water. Smokestack industries would trade pollution rights among themselves, within overall caps set by the government, and have a 2018 deadline for reducing the three pollutants by 70 percent.
The president pointed to the regulatory changes his administration has made on its own while the bill has languished. Those rules set new limits on smog and soot pollution to benefit the people who live downwind of the dirtiest coal-fired power plants in the East, South and Midwest; order power plants to cut mercury pollution smokestacks but left an out for the worst polluters; an aim to cut diesel pollution.
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