Thursday, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will vote on whether to approve S. 556, "the Clean Power Act," proposed by James Jeffords, Independent of Vermont. The bill requires drastic reductions in power-plant emissions of sulfur dioxide (75 percent), nitrogen oxides (75 percent), mercury (90 percent), and carbon dioxide (26 percent) — all by 2008.Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the inescapable byproduct of the hydrocarbon fuels (coal, oil, natural gas) that produce 70 percent of America's electricity supply and 84 percent of all U.S. energy. CO2 is also the principal greenhouse gas targeted by the Kyoto Protocol, the unratified...