Democrats Consider Widening Ehrlich's Air Pollution Plan

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) - Republican Gov. Bob Ehrlich's plan to slash toxic emissions from power plants doesn't go far enough to protect public health, Democrats said Tuesday as an alternate plan to cap emissions went before a House committee.

Last fall, the governor announced rule changes he said would dramatically reduce emissions of three pollutants from some coal-fired power plants. However, his plan did not address carbon dioxide emissions, suspected of contributing to global warming, and some lawmakers want to put tougher caps in the law.

Delegate James Hubbard, a Democrat from Prince George's County who sponsored the bill, said Ehrlich's proposal is "kind of a day late and a dollar short and a little weak on substance."

Both chambers in the legislature are considering bills to require coal-fired plants to slash emissions on four pollutants. Besides carbon dioxide, the pollutants are mercury, sulfur dioxide and nitrous dioxide. The plans haven't been voted on yet, but a House committee held a hearing on Hubbard's proposal Tuesday.

Before the hearing, environmentalists and a group of nurses called on lawmakers to pass the tougher pollution caps. The bill also calls for tougher limits on mercury emissions than the governor proposes.

"His rules don't do enough to limit mercury or carbon," said Dawn Stoltzfus, spokeswoman for the Maryland League of Conservation Voters.

Power company representatives who attended the hearing repeated their argument that Maryland acting alone won't clean the air.

"We've been saying all along that we support regional regulation," said Kevin Thornton, a spokesman for Constellation Energy.

Brenda Afzal, a nurse from the University of Maryland-Baltimore School of Nursing, said that Maryland would be unwise to put off pollution controls because other states don't have them.

"It's a small dent," she conceded. "But if we don't start here, if we don't take the lead, how can we ask other states to do it? How can we ask the world to do it?"

The bills now await committee votes before going to the full House and Senate for consideration.

(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)