U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., said today he hopes the Congress will soon move to counter a recent court decision that overturned new federal limits on pollution from coal-fired power plants.

Sen. Alexander and Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., are conducting a roundtable forum in Washington D.C. today on how best to limit smog-causing emissions from power plants after a federal appears court in July struck down the Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Air Interstate Rule.

“This has lots of consequences for Tennessee,” Sen. Alexander said today in advance of the forum. “The (Clean Air Interstate) rule would make it easier for Chattanooga to meet the clean air standards because it helps keep TVA and utilities in other states like Georgia, Alabama, Texas and Ohio from producing electricity in a way that blows dirty air into Tennessee and makes it harder for Chattanooga to meet its clean air standards.”

Dirty air in East Tennessee hurts both the physical and economic health of the region, Sen. Alexander said.

“East Tennessee, and the area around the Smoky Mountains, has a bad problem with dirty air and the respiratory and health problems that it causes, including heart attacks, strokes and even lung cancer,” he said. “The second problem from dirty air involves jobs. The first thing a new auto plant — or a supplier to an auto plant — has to do is to go out and get an air quality permit. If the region is not meeting its air quality standards, it makes it more difficult to attract those jobs into the region.”

Bob Colby, executive director for the Chattanooga //Hamilton County Air Pollution Control Bureau, said Chattanooga is in compliance with all EPA rules except the annual standard for small particle pollutants. But he said Volkswagen and its suppliers “should have no problem” securing required air permits to build new plants.

But to allow Chattanooga to continue to meet tightening pollution standards, Sen. Alexander said he hopes TVA and other utilities will commit to meeting the Clean Air Interstate Rules, which EPA estimated should cut air pollution enough to save 35,000 lives in the affected 28 states.

Although the Clean Air Interstate Rule was struck down by an appellate court, TVA still plans to install scrubbers and other control devices over the next three years at its Bull Run, John Sevier and Kingston Fossil Plants. The control devices are part of more than $3 billion TVA estimates it will spend to meet the federal rules.

But Sen. Alexander said he worries that utility executives, already having to raise rates to cover soaring fuel costs, may delay or scrap plans to install more scrubbers and selective catalytic reduction devices now that the court has vacated the rule.

Time is running out this year before the November election for Congress to respond to the court decision vacating the new EPA rule. The Clean Air Interstate Rule would require reductions in sulfur and nitrogen oxide pollution from power plants in 28 states, including Tennessee.

"The practical effect is that at a time of rising costs to produce electricity, the federal government is sending a signal to utilities that they aren't required to meet clean air standards," Alexander said in a telephone interview. "What Sen. Carper and I want to do is say to TVA and other utilities that we're going to fix that problem and that standards are going to be even stricter than the rule that got knocked down.”

See tomorrow’s Chattanooga Times Free Press for complete coverage.

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