Calling it a "new environmental path for America," President Bush has unveiled a plan that would limit pollution from power plants, but loosen regulations telling them how to do it.
The proposal targets sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and mercury emissions from power plants. It sets up a pollution trading system that would force companies that do not meet pollution reduction goals to buy rights to pollute from other companies that exceed their goals, similar to buying and trading commodities. Pollution trading produced substantial reductions in sulfur dioxide emissions on a smaller scale when applied to the problem of acid rain.