Heidi Alexander: “The Senator from Kentucky wants to overturn a clean air rule which would limit the amount of soot and ozone, the…”

“The Senator from Kentucky wants to overturn a clean air rule which would limit the amount of soot and ozone, the pollution that causes smog, from blowing from Kentucky and other states into Tennessee or that blows from Tennessee into North Carolina. This is no solution to a serious problem. I want to give the four reasons why I am going to vote no, and why I believe Senator Pryor of Arkansas and I have a better solution, which is to put the rule into law and give the utilities enough time to comply with it. Reason No. 1, auto jobs. The first thing Nissan did when it came to Tennessee 30 years ago was to go down to the Air Quality Board and get an air quality permit so it could operate its paint plant. Fortunately, our air was clean enough to allow that to happen. Nissan came, and so did tens of thousands of jobs. If it had not gotten the permit, the jobs would not be there. Volkswagen has come to Tennessee. We want to make sure its suppliers can get an air quality permit so they do not have to go to other States. So the first reason we need to stop air from blowing into Tennessee from other States is auto jobs. Second, the Sevier County Chamber of Commerce, right next to the Great Smoky Mountains--that is where Dolly Parton grew up--I walk in to see them, and they say their No. 1 goal is clean air. That is because 9 million tourists come to see the Great Smoky Mountains, not the Great Smoggy Mountains. This is not a group or a hotbed of liberal regulators.…”