I

107TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 1335

To reduce emissions of mercury, carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and sulfur

dioxide from fossil fuel-fired electric utility generating units operating

in the United States, and for other purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

APRIL 3, 2001

Mr. ALLEN (for himself, Mr. SAXTON, Mr. BALDACCI, Mrs. MALONEY of New

York, Ms. BALDWIN, Mr. BLUMENAUER, Ms. DEGETTE, Mr. DELAHUNT,

Mr. HINCHEY, Mrs. JONES of Ohio, Mr. KUCINICH, Mrs. NAPOLITANO,

Mr. NEAL of Massachusetts, Mr. OLVER, Mr. SANDERS, Mr. THOMPSON

of Mississippi, Mr. TIERNEY, and Ms. WOOLSEY) introduced the following

bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and

in addition to the Committees on Education and the Workforce, Financial

Services, Transportation and Infrastructure, and Science, for a period to

be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee

concerned

A BILL

To reduce emissions of mercury, carbon dioxide, nitrogen

oxides, and sulfur dioxide from fossil fuel-fired electric

utility generating units operating in the United States,

and for other purposes.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
2

•HR 1335 IH

1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS.

2 (a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the

3 ‘‘Clean Power Plant Act of 2001’’.

4 (b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents of

5 this Act is as follows:

Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents.

Sec. 2. Findings and purposes.

Sec. 3. Definitions.

Sec. 4. Air emission standards for fossil fuel-fired generating units.

Sec. 5. Tonnage cap for carbon dioxide.

Sec. 6. Disposal of mercury and other hazardous wastes.

Sec. 7. Recognition of permanent emission reductions in future climate change

implementation programs.

Sec. 8. Evaluation of implementation of this Act and other statutes.

Sec. 9. Assistance for workers adversely affected by reduced consumption of

coal.

Sec. 10. Community economic development incentives for communities adversely

affected by reduced consumption of coal.

Sec. 11. Carbon sequestration.

Sec. 12. Property tax relief.

Sec. 13. Hazardous air pollutants from electric utility steam generating units.

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES.

7 (a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds that—

8 (1) the United States is relying increasingly on

9 old, inefficient, and highly polluting power plants to

10 provide electricity;

11 (2) the pollution from those power plants

12 causes a wide range of health and environmental

13 damage, including—

14 (A) fine particulate matter that is associ15 ated with the deaths of approximately 50,000

16 Americans annually;

17 (B) ozone, commonly known as ‘‘smog’’,

18 that impairs normal respiratory functions and
3

•HR 1335 IH

1 is of special concern to individuals afflicted with

2 asthma, emphysema, and other respiratory ail3 ments, and causes property damage;

4 (C) rural ozone ‘‘smog’’ that impairs nor5 mal respiratory functions and is of special con6 cern to individuals afflicted with asthma, em7 physema, and other respiratory ailments, and

8 obscures visibility, and damages forests, crops,

9 and wildlife;

10 (D) acid deposition that damages estu11 aries, lakes, rivers, and streams (and the plants

12 and animals that depend on them for survival)

13 and leaches heavy metals from the soil;

14 (E) mercury and heavy metal contamina15 tion that renders fish unsafe to eat, with espe16 cially serious consequences for pregnant women

17 and their fetuses;

18 (F) eutrophication of estuaries, lakes, riv19 ers, and streams;

20 (G) global climate change that may fun21 damentally and irreversibly alter human, ani22 mal, and plant life; and

23 (H) mercury and other hazardous and

24 toxic substances found in fossil fuel combustion

25 wastes which may contaminate ground water.
4

•HR 1335 IH

1 (3) tax laws and environmental laws—

2 (A) provide a very strong incentive for

3 electric utilities to keep old, dirty, and ineffi4 cient generating units in operation; and

5 (B) provide a strong disincentive to invest6 ing in new, clean, and efficient generating tech7 nologies;

8 (4) fossil fuel-fired power plants, consisting of

9 plants fueled by coal, fuel oil, and natural gas,

10 produce nearly two-thirds of the electricity generated

11 in the United States;

12 (5) coal-fired power plants are the leading

13 source of mercury emissions in the United States,

14 releasing from their smokestacks an estimated 52

15 tons of this potent neurotoxin each year;

16 (6) in 1998, fossil fuel-fired power plants in the

17 United States produced over 2,200,000,000 tons of

18 carbon dioxide, the primary greenhouse gas;

19 (7) on average—

20 (A) fossil fuel-fired power plants emit

21 1,999 pounds of carbon dioxide for every mega22 watt hour of electricity produced; and

23 (B) coal-fired power plants emit 2,110

24 pounds of carbon dioxide for every megawatt

25 hour of electricity produced;
5

•HR 1335 IH

1 (8) new fossil fuel-fired power plants produce

2 more than 100,000,000 tons per year of fossil-fuel

3 combustion wastes containing hazardous and toxic

4 chemicals, including, but not limited to, mercury, ar5 senic, barium, cadmium, chromium, nickel, lead, se6 lenium, and vanadium;

7 (9) the average fossil fuel-fired generating unit

8 in the United States commenced operation in 1964,

9 6 years before the Clean Air Act (42 U.S.C. 7401

10 et seq.) was amended to establish requirements for

11 stationary sources;

12 (10)(A) according to the Department of En13 ergy, only 23 percent of the 1,000 largest emitting

14 units are subject to stringent new source perform15 ance standards under section 111 of the Clean Air

16 Act (42 U.S.C. 7411); and

17 (B) the remaining 77 percent, commonly re18 ferred to as ‘‘grandfathered’’ power plants, are sub19 ject to much less stringent requirements;

20 (11) pollution from power plants can be re21 duced through adoption of modern technologies and

22 practices, including—

23 (A) methods of combusting coal that are

24 intrinsically more efficient and less polluting,

25 such as pressurized fluidized bed combustion
6

•HR 1335 IH

1 and an integrated gasification combined cycle

2 system;

3 (B) methods of combusting cleaner fuels,

4 such as gases from fossil and biological re5 sources and combined cycle turbines;

6 (C) treating flue gases through application

7 of pollution controls;

8 (D) methods for managing and disposing

9 of fossil-fuel combustion wastes reflecting the

10 hazardous nature of their components;

11 (E) methods of extracting energy from

12 natural, renewable resources of energy, such as

13 solar and wind sources;

14 (F) methods of producing electricity and

15 thermal energy from fuels without conventional

16 combustion, such as fuel cells; and

17 (G) combined heat and power methods of

18 extracting and using heat that would otherwise

19 be wasted, for the purpose of heating or cooling

20 office buildings, providing steam to processing

21 facilities, or otherwise increasing total effi22 ciency;

23 (12) adopting the technologies and practices de24 scribed in paragraph (11) would increase competi-
7

•HR 1335 IH

1 tiveness and productivity, secure employment, save

2 lives, and preserve the future.

3 (b) PURPOSES.—The purposes of this Act are—

4 (1) to protect and preserve the environment

5 while safeguarding health by ensuring that each fos6 sil fuel-fired generating unit minimizes pollution to

7 levels that are technologically feasible through mod8 ernization and application of pollution controls;

9 (2) to greatly reduce the quantities of mercury

10 (and other hazardous and toxic chemicals), carbon

11 dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxides entering

12 the environment from combustion of fossil fuels;

13 (3) to eliminate the ‘‘grandfather’’ loophole in

14 the Clean Air Act relating to sources in operation

15 before the promulgation of standards under section

16 111 of that Act (42 U.S.C. 7411);

17 (4) to decrease significantly the threat to

18 human health and the environment posed by mer19 cury and other hazardous chemicals resulting from

20 the combustion of fossil fuels;

21 (5) to provide worker retraining for workers ad22 versely affected by reduced consumption of coal;

23 (6) to provide economic development incentives

24 for communities adversely affected by reduced con25 sumption of coal; and
8

•HR 1335 IH

1 (7) to provide property tax relief for commu2 nities whose tax base is significantly affected by any

3 resulting plant retirements.

4 SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.

5 In this Act:

6 (1) ADMINISTRATOR.—The term ‘‘Adminis7 trator’’ means the Administrator of the Environ8 mental Protection Agency.

9 (2) GENERATING UNIT.—The term ‘‘generating

10 unit’’ means an electric utility generating facility

11 with a nameplate capacity of 15 megawatts or great12 er that uses a combustion device primarily to gen13 erate electricity for sale.

14 SEC. 4. AIR EMISSION STANDARDS FOR FOSSIL FUEL-FIRED

15 GENERATING UNITS.

16 Section 111 of the Clean Air Act is amended by add17 ing the following new subsection at the end thereof:

18 ‘‘(k) EMISSION RATES FOR CERTAIN FOSSIL FUEL19 FIRED ELECTRIC GENERATING UNITS.—

20 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—In addition to other re21 quirements applicable under this section to such

22 units, emissions of air pollutants from each fossil

23 fuel-fired electric generating unit that is a new

24 source or an existing source for purposes of this sec25 tion shall not exceed the following:
9

•HR 1335 IH

1 ‘‘(A) MERCURY.—Mercury emissions shall

2 not exceed 10 percent of the mercury otherwise

3 present in the flue gas. Not later than 2 years

4 after the date of enactment of this subsection,

5 the Administrator, in consultation with the Sec6 retary of Energy, shall promulgate methods for

7 determining initial and continuing compliance

8 with this subparagraph and fuel sampling tech9 niques and emission monitoring techniques for

10 use by generating units in calculating mercury

11 emission reductions for the purposes of this

12 subparagraph.

13 ‘‘(B) SULFUR DIOXIDE.—Sulfur dioxide

14 emissions shall not exceed 3.0 pounds per

15 megawatt hour and total annual sulfur dioxide

16 emissions shall not exceed 3.0 pounds multi17 plied by the average megawatt hours generated

18 by the unit in the calendar years 1998 through

19 2000.

20 ‘‘(C) NITROGEN OXIDES.—Nitrogen oxide

21 emissions shall not exceed 1.5 pounds per

22 megawatt hour and total annual emissions of

23 nitrogen oxides shall not exceed 1.5 pounds

24 multiplied by the average annual megawatt
10

•HR 1335 IH

1 hours generated by the unit in the calendar

2 years 1998 through 2000.

3 ‘‘(2) REPORTING.—

4 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Not less often than

5 quarterly, the owner or operator of each electric

6 utility generating unit shall submit a pollutant7 specific emission report for each pollutant cov8 ered by this subsection and for carbon dioxide.

9 ‘‘(B) SIGNATURE.—Each report required

10 under subparagraph (A) shall be signed by a re11 sponsible official of the generating unit, who

12 shall certify the accuracy of the report.

13 ‘‘(C) PUBLIC REPORTING.—The Adminis14 trator shall annually make available to the pub15 lic, through 1 or more published reports and 1

16 or more forms of electronic media, facility-spe17 cific emission data for each generating unit and

18 pollutant covered by this subsection and for

19 carbon dioxide.

20 ‘‘(D) CONSUMER DISCLOSURE.—Not later

21 than 2 years after the date of enactment of this

22 subsection, the Administrator shall promulgate

23 regulations requiring each owner or operator of

24 each electric utility generating unit to disclose

25 to residential consumers of electricity generated
11

•HR 1335 IH

1 by the unit, on a regular basis (but not less

2 often than annually) and in a manner conven3 ient to the consumers, data concerning the level

4 of emissions by the generating unit of carbon

5 dioxide and each pollutant covered by this sec6 tion.

7 ‘‘(3) EFFECTIVE DATE.—This subsection shall

8 take effect on January 1, 2005, and on that date

9 each unit covered by this subsection shall be re10 quired to have a permit issued under title V that re11 quires compliance with this subsection.’’.

12 SEC. 5. TONNAGE CAP FOR CARBON DIOXIDE.

13 (a) GENERATION PERFORMANCE STANDARD.—For

14 each calendar year beginning after December 31, 2004,

15 the Administrator shall calculate a generation perform16 ance standard for carbon dioxide from covered fossil fuel17 fired electric generating units. The standard shall be equal

18 to 1.914 billion tons divided by the Commission’s estimate

19 (under this section) of total electric generation from all

20 such units during that year. The Administrator shall pub21 lish such standard (expressed in pounds per megawatt

22 hour) at least 30 days prior to the beginning of the cal23 endar year concerned. For purposes of this section, the

24 term ‘‘covered fossil fuel-fired electric generating unit’’
12

•HR 1335 IH

1 means a fossil fuel-fired electric generating unit with an

2 electric generation capacity greater than 50 megawatts.

3 (b) ALLOCATION AND TRADING OF ALLOWANCES.—

4 (1) IN GENERAL.—For each calendar year be5 ginning after December 31, 2004, the Administrator

6 shall allocate allowances for carbon dioxide among

7 covered fossil fuel-fired electric generating units by

8 multiplying the generation performance standard for

9 that calendar year by each unit’s electric generation

10 during the calendar year.

11 (2) CARRYOVER AND TRADING OF ALLOW12 ANCES.—Allowances allocated to any unit for any

13 calendar year that are not used to demonstrate com14 pliance with subsection (c) for that calendar year

15 may be retained and used to demonstrate compliance

16 with such requirements by any person in a subse17 quent calendar year. Such allowances may be trans18 ferred from the unit to which allocated to any other

19 unit. Any person to whom such allowances have been

20 transferred may use the allowances in the calendar

21 year or in a subsequent calendar year to dem22 onstrate compliance with this section or may trans23 fer such allowances to any other person for such

24 purposes.
13

•HR 1335 IH

1 (c) COMPLIANCE WITH ALLOWANCE LIMITS.—For

2 each calendar year beginning after December 31, 2004,

3 the owner or operator of each covered fossil fuel-fired elec4 tric generating unit shall surrender to the Administrator

5 a number of allowances for carbon dioxide equal to the

6 total tonnage of carbon dioxide emitted by that unit dur7 ing the calendar year. Emissions shall be determined

8 based on continuous monitoring approved by the Adminis9 trator. The Administrator may permit the average rate of

10 emissions from a covered fossil fuel-fired electric gener11 ating unit over any calendar year to exceed the generation

12 performance standard if the generating plant has a suffi13 cient quantity of emissions credits.

14 (d) EXCESS EMISSIONS.—The owner or operator of

15 any covered fossil fuel-fired electric generating unit that

16 emits carbon dioxide in any calendar year in excess of the

17 allowances for such air pollutant that the owner or oper18 ator holds for use for the unit for the calendar year shall

19 be liable for the payment of an excess emissions penalty,

20 and shall be liable to offset the excess emissions by an

21 equal tonnage amount of such air pollutant in the fol22 lowing calendar year or such other period as the Adminis23 trator shall prescribe. The excess emissions penalty shall

24 be calculated on the basis of the number of tons emitted

25 in excess of the total number of allowances held, multiplied
14

•HR 1335 IH

1 by $100, indexed by inflation under rules promulgated by

2 the Administrator. Excess emissions penalties and offsets

3 shall be determined and administered in accordance with

4 regulations to be promulgated by the Administrator within

5 6 months after the enactment of this section. The failure

6 or refusal of any person to pay the full amount of any

7 excess emission penalty imposed under this section shall

8 be punishable by a fine of $10,000 for each day during

9 which such failure or refusal continues.

10 (e) ESTIMATE OF ELECTRIC GENERATION.—For

11 each calendar year beginning after December 31, 2004,

12 the Administrator shall publish the Administrator’s esti13 mate of the total electric generation by covered fossil fuel14 fired electric generating units. Such estimate shall be com15 puted based on total electric energy generation from all

16 covered fossil fuel-fired electric generating units during

17 the current year or calendar year plus the projected

18 growth (as determined by the Secretary of Energy) in elec19 tric energy generation and expected verifiable electric en20 ergy conservation for the calendar year. The Adminis21 trator shall publish such estimate at least 30 days prior

22 to the beginning of the applicable period for which the es23 timate is made.
15

•HR 1335 IH

1 SEC. 6. DISPOSAL OF MERCURY AND OTHER HAZARDOUS

2 WASTES.

3 (a) CAPTURED OR RECOVERED MERCURY.—Not

4 later than 2 years after the date of enactment of this Act,

5 the Administrator shall promulgate regulations under sub6 title C of the Solid Waste Disposal Act and other applica7 ble provisions of law to ensure that mercury or other haz8 ardous wastes captured or recovered through the use of

9 an emission control method, or coal cleaning, or another

10 process associated with the combustion of fossil fuels for

11 the generation of electricity is disposed of in a manner

12 that ensures that—

13 (1) the hazards from mercury or other haz14 ardous waste are not transferred from one environ15 mental medium to another; and

16 (2) there is no release of mercury or other haz17 ardous waste into the environment.

18 (b) SLUDGES AND WASTES CONTAINING MERCURY

19 OR OTHER HAZARDOUS WASTES.—The regulations pro20 mulgated by the Administrator under subsection (a) shall

21 ensure that sludges and wastes containing mercury or

22 other hazardous wastes are handled and disposed of in ac23 cordance with all applicable Federal and State laws (in24 cluding regulations).

25 (c) CERTAIN PROVISIONS NOT APPLICABLE.—Sec26 tion 3001(b)(3)(A) of the Solid Waste Disposal Act is
16

•HR 1335 IH

1 shall not apply to wastes generated from the combustion

2 of coal or other fossil fuels in a generating unit.

3 SEC. 7. RECOGNITION OF PERMANENT EMISSION REDUC4 TIONS IN FUTURE CLIMATE CHANGE IMPLE5 MENTATION PROGRAMS.

6 It is the sense of Congress that—

7 (1) permanent reductions in emissions of car8 bon dioxide and nitrogen oxides that are accom9 plished through the retirement of old generating

10 units and replacement by new generating units that

11 meet the emission standards specified in this Act, or

12 through replacement of old generating units with

13 nonpolluting renewable power generation tech14 nologies, should be credited to the utility sector, and

15 to the owner or operator that retires or replaces the

16 old generating unit, in any climate change imple17 mentation program enacted by Congress;

18 (2) the base year for calculating reductions

19 under a program described in paragraph (1) should

20 be the calendar year preceding the calendar year in

21 which this Act is enacted; and

22 (3) a reasonable portion of any monetary value

23 that may accrue from the crediting described in

24 paragraph (1) should be passed on to utility cus25 tomers.
17

•HR 1335 IH

1 SEC. 8. EVALUATION OF IMPLEMENTATION OF THIS ACT

2 AND OTHER STATUTES.

3 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 2 years after the

4 date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Energy,

5 in consultation with the Chairman of the Federal Energy

6 Regulatory Commission and the Administrator, shall sub7 mit to Congress a report on the implementation of this

8 Act.

9 (b) IDENTIFICATION OF CONFLICTING LAW.—The

10 report shall identify any provision of the Energy Policy

11 Act of 1992 (Public Law 102–486), the Energy Supply

12 and Environmental Coordination Act of 1974 (15 U.S.C.

13 791 et seq.), the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act

14 of 1978 (16 U.S.C. 2601 et seq.), the Powerplant and In15 dustrial Fuel Use Act of 1978 (42 U.S.C. 8301 et seq.),

16 or the Solid Waste Disposal Act (42 U.S.C 6901 et seq.),

17 or the amendments made by those Acts, that conflicts with

18 the intent or efficient implementation of this Act.

19 (c) RECOMMENDATIONS.—The report shall include

20 recommendations from the Secretary of Energy, the

21 Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission,

22 and the Administrator for legislative or administrative

23 measures to harmonize and streamline the statutes speci24 fied in subsection (b) and the regulations implementing

25 those statutes.
18

•HR 1335 IH

1 SEC. 9. ASSISTANCE FOR WORKERS ADVERSELY AFFECTED

2 BY REDUCED CONSUMPTION OF COAL.

3 In addition to amounts made available under any

4 other law, there is authorized to be appropriated

5 $75,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2002 through 2016

6 to provide assistance, under the economic dislocation and

7 worker adjustment assistance program of the Department

8 of Labor authorized by title III of the Job Training Part9 nership Act (29 U.S.C. 1651 et seq.), to coal and oil in10 dustry workers who are terminated from employment as

11 a result of reduced consumption of oil and coal by the elec12 tric power generation industry.

13 SEC. 10. COMMUNITY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT INCEN14 TIVES FOR COMMUNITIES ADVERSELY AF15 FECTED BY REDUCED CONSUMPTION OF

16 COAL.

17 In addition to amounts made available under any

18 other law, there is authorized to be appropriated

19 $75,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2002 through 2016

20 to provide assistance, under the economic adjustment pro21 gram of the Department of Commerce authorized by the

22 Public Works and Economic Development Act of 1965 (42

23 U.S.C. 3121 et seq.), to assist communities adversely af24 fected by reduced consumption of coal by the electric

25 power generation industry.
19

•HR 1335 IH

1 SEC. 11. CARBON SEQUESTRATION.

2 (a) CARBON SEQUESTRATION STRATEGY.—In addi3 tion to amounts made available under any other law, there

4 is authorized to be appropriated to the Environmental

5 Protection Agency and the Department of Energy for each

6 of fiscal years 2002 through 2004 a total of $15,000,000

7 to conduct research and development activities in basic

8 and applied science in support of development by Sep9 tember 30, 2004, of a carbon sequestration strategy that

10 is designed to offset all growth in carbon dioxide emissions

11 in the United States after 2010.

12 (b) METHODS FOR BIOLOGICALLY SEQUESTERING

13 CARBON DIOXIDE.—In addition to amounts made avail14 able under any other law, there is authorized to be appro15 priated to the Environmental Protection Agency and the

16 Department of Agriculture for each of fiscal years 2002

17 through 2011 a total of $30,000,000 to carry out soil res18 toration, tree planting, wetland protection, and other

19 methods of biologically sequestering carbon dioxide.

20 SEC. 12. PROPERTY TAX RELIEF.

21 The Administrator shall make grants to each munici22 pality in which there is located one or more fossil fuel23 fired electric generating units that—

24 (1) provide 10 percent or more of the munici25 pality’s annual property tax revenue in the munici-
20

•HR 1335 IH

1 pality’s last fiscal year ending before the enactment

2 of this Act, and

3 (2) cease operation after the enactment of this

4 Act.

5 Such grants shall be made only for the 3 taxable years

6 following the year in which the unit ceases operation and

7 shall not exceed 50 percent of the total real property taxes

8 paid to such municipalities by the owners or operators of

9 such units in the taxable year prior to the taxable year

10 in which the unit ceased operation.

11 SEC. 13. HAZARDOUS AIR POLLUTANTS FROM ELECTRIC

12 UTILITY STEAM GENERATING UNITS.

13 Section 112 of the Clean Air Act is amended as fol14 lows:

15 (1) By repealing the last sentence of section

16 112(n)(1)(A).

17 (2) By amending paragraph (1) of subsection

18 (c) by inserting after the first sentence the following:

19 ‘‘Within 12 months after the enactment of the Clean

20 Power Plant Act of 2001, such list shall be revised

21 to include electric utility steam generating units.’’.

Æ