George Voinovich

Moreover, additional time is necessary to coordinate installation of major pollution control equipment during spring and fall outage schedules to ensure reliability of the entire utility system.

My experience has been over the years--we could have done a 3-P bill 6 years ago.

But quite frankly, your State is contributing to my State's non-attainment. And you are causing jobs to flee my State.

One of the observations that I have had even most recently is the issue of the various positions taken by utilities depending on the percentage of energy generated.

we are concerned with the concept that each time USEPA promulgates a new, more restrictive air quality standard USEPA intends to revise the Interstate Transport Rule by changing the emission budgets.

I think if we can move incrementally forward to tighten the Transport Rule or to pass the legislation that you and Senator Carper have been working on and crafting, we can meet a lot of the objectives that we have been working on for over…

I sometimes look at the emphasis that we are placing on greenhouse gas emissions because that is an international problem that we can impact upon.

the EPA assumption that this unit would be scrubbed by 2011 is completely infeasible and inaccurate.

We can alleviate these concerns by properly coordinating the compliance obligations for the electric power sector while giving the industry a predictable compliance road map over the next 10 to 20 years.

There has to be some kind of meeting of the minds if we expect to get it done.

This analysis shows that the agency's actions have the potential to shutter over 120,000 megawatts of coal-fired generation by 2015.

Six months, let alone a year or 2, is not nearly enough time for this.

One of the things that I am doing is we are negotiating with Senator Carper right now on this legislation.

I am glad that Chris Korleski, head of Ohio's Department of Environmental Protection, is one of the witnesses.

Pending EPA regulations would cause them to shutter 4,000 to 6,000 megawatts, 20 to 35 percent of their coal-fired capacity.

I would be interested in knowing how many other States find themselves in the predicament that you do.

The point is that the issue here is that you have States that feel that they are being penalized because other States aren't doing what they are supposed to be doing.

I know we wanted to get the ambient air standards taken care of as soon as possible.

I just would like to start out right now with a big picture thing.

One of the biggest mistakes I made was to put Christine Todd Whitman in charge of the environment.

But I think it is worth it to try and get it done.

We have two main concerns with this approach.

This Clean Air Interstate Rule is significantly more vulnerable to court challenges than legislation and will undoubtedly be held up. Trying to litigate the way to cleaner air only delays progress, often yields little or no result, and…

I have long sought a national policy that implements a comprehensive air quality strategy.

I think we would recommend any budget USEPA promulgates for an emissions sector would not change for at least 10 years, and then only if USEPA demonstrates that additional controls are technically achievable and cost effective.