Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN): Influential friend of the environment?

On losing his bid for Senate minority whip to Trent Lott by one vote, Sen. Lamar Alexander said "this gives me the independence to devote all of my time to serving Tennesseans and focusing on the issues I care the most about: education, energy, job creation and the environment."

As no small consolation, Alexander has landed a couple of key committee assignments -- one to the powerful Appropriations Committee, and another to the Environmental and Public Works Committee. A press release from Alexander's office says:

U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) will become the first Tennessee Republican ever to serve on the Senate's Appropriations Committee, widely considered to be its most powerful committee because of its jurisdiction over federal spending.

Newly-elected Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who named Alexander to the Appropriations Committee, said, "This appointment demonstrates the respect our caucus has for the extraordinary contribution Lamar has made during his first four years in the Senate, and it is intended to make it possible for him to be even more effective during his next term."

McConnell also appointed Alexander to the Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee which has jurisdiction over Tennessee Valley Authority, clean air and transportation issues. Alexander will also be the third ranking Republican member of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee.

Alexander said, "These appointments could not have been better for Tennessee. The appropriations appointment gives me the best possible opportunity to help control spending and to help Tennesseans receive our fair share of federal funding. The other committee assignments allow me to work for Tennesseans on the issues I care most about: education, energy, the environment, job creation and helping the new TVA board of directors keep electric power reliable and reasonably priced. I am grateful to Sen. McConnell for this show of confidence after just four years in the Senate."

Alexander's appointment to Environment and Public Works Committee could be good news for environmentalists. Unlike many Republicans who oppose environmental regulation and are beholden to various special interests in the energy industry, Alexander has been a vocal supporter of conservation, clean air, and other environmental causes.

While Alexander says in his press release that he intends to help the new TVA board keep "electric power reliable and reasonably priced," he has also been an outspoken critic of TVA's progress on pollution control at their coal-fired power plants.

Alexander remarked in 2005:

But for all their generating success, Widows Creek and other, older coal plants also are major polluters of the air in the Tennessee Valley, according to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency data. U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., said Tuesday that sulfur dioxide generated from coal plants such as Widows Creek probably causes 40 percent of the smog in the Great Smoky Mountains.

"These plants also produce nitrogen pollutants and mercury, which are hazardous to our health," Sen. Alexander said. "TVA has the latest pollution control equipment on only two of the eight units at Widows Creek today. If we're really serious about clean air, TVA needs to put the latest pollution control equipment on all of its coal-fired units and/or build more nuclear power plants."

Earlier this year, Alexander reintroduced the bi-partisan Clean Air Planning Act, which would restore environmental protections rolled back by Bush's "Clear Skies" initiative and accelerate implementation of pollution controls. CAPA would cut sulfur dioxide emissions by 82%, cut nitrogen oxide emissions by 68%, cut mercury emissions by 90%, and impose the first-ever cap on CO2 emissions which contribute to global climate change.

Sen. Alexander had previously co-sponsored the legislation in 2003, earning high praise from the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy:

It is rare in politics for a freshman Senator to step forward and provide this kind of leadership," said Dr. Stephen Smith, Executive Director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. "This move has the potential to break a partisan log jam that has choked our national parks and kept citizens across the country holding their breath waiting for the promise of clean, healthy air."

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Senator Alexander's move sends a clear message to President Bush and the Environmental Protection Agency that protecting the air quality of our national parks must be a major focus of any federal clean air bill. The President's "Clear Skies Act" has widely been criticized as not going far enough to get the protections needed for human health and the national parks. By endorsing the Carper bill, Senator Alexander will help send a signal to the Tennessee Valley Authority and other Southeast utility companies that advanced technologies make the most economic sense for long-term clean air benefits.

While chairman of the Senate Energy Subcommittee, Sen. Alexander also urged Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen to pursue even stricter mercury emissions controls at the state level:

U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) on Wednesday said the federal government's current rule on mercury emissions may not be strong enough to protect Tennessee and urged Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen to continue his investigation into the extent to which coal-fired power plants are contributing to the problem of mercury deposits in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

"If the investigation shows that the Smokies are being harmed by mercury, then Tennessee may wish to adopt measures that go beyond the current federal mercury program for power plants, as some states are doing," Sen. Alexander wrote. "The bottom line is that the federal mercury rule may not be strong enough to protect Tennessee citizens."

Sen. Alexander has been a longtime defender of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. When the National Park Service announced proposed management plan revisions that would have opened up National Parks to more commercialization and increased noise and pollution from off-road vehicles, snowmobiles, and personal watercraft, Alexander said:

I am opposed to the proposed new management policies because I believe they would reduce the importance of conservation, impair park air quality and increase the likelihood of noise pollution. Frankly, I'm not convinced a rewrite of the management policies is even necessary.

Alexander hand delivered a letter to National Park Service Director Fran Mainella outlining his concerns about conservation, air pollution, and noise pollution.

Sen. Alexander has also supported clean coal technologies, including a coal-gasification process (which was coincidentally developed by Eastman Chemical Company of Tennessee, who coincidentally just recently received a $130 million investment tax credit for their work on the technology.)

While he doesn't get an A+ 100% score with all environmentalists (among other things he opposed tax credits for windmills and supports natural gas exploration in Alaska and more nuclear power plants), Sen. Alexander is clearly a better friend to the environment than many of his colleagues in the GOP, who have "stayed the course" on America's outdated energy policies and resisted environmental regulation at every turn. It will be interesting to see if his bi-partisan ideas receive a warmer welcome in the new Democrat controlled Congress.