The Clear Skies Initiative

Dramatically & Steadily Cuts Power Plant Emissions of Three of the Worst Air Pollutants:

• Cuts sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions by 73 percent, from current emissions of 11 million tons to a cap of 4.5 million tons in 2010, and 3 million tons in 2018.

• Cuts emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) by 67 percent, from current emissions of 5 million tons to a cap of 2.1 million tons in 2008, and to 1.7 million tons in 2018.

• Cuts mercury emissions by 69 percent -- the first-ever national cap on mercury emissions. Emissions will be cut from current emissions of 48 tons to a cap of 26 tons in 2010, and 15 tons in 2018.

Uses a Proven Market-Based Approach:

• Protects Americans from respiratory and cardiovascular diseases by dramatically reducing smog, acid rain, fine particles, regional haze, nitrogen and mercury deposition.

• Protects our wildlife, habitats and ecosystem health.

• Cuts pollution further, faster, cheaper, and with more certainty, using a 'cap-and trade' program, replacing a cycle of endless litigation with rapid and certain improvements in air quality.

• Saves as much as $1 billion annually in compliance costs that are passed along to American consumers, and improves air quality and protects the reliability and affordability of electricity.

• Uses the model of our most successful clean air law -- the 1990 Clean Air Act's acid rain program -- and encourages use of new and cleaner pollution control technologies.

A New Approach on Global Climate Change

The President has committed America to an aggressive new strategy to cut greenhouse gas intensity by 18% over the next 10 years. The initiative also supports vital climate change research and ensures that America's workers and citizens of the developing world are not unfairly penalized. The President's initiative puts America on a path to slow the growth of greenhouse gas emissions, and -- as the science justifies -- to stop, and then reverse that growth.