This bill — the SENSE Act — would ease emissions regulations for facilities which generate electricity by burning coal refuse by providing them with an alternative means of complying with the Mercury and Air Toxics Standard (MATS). Such facilities would be able to choose an emissions standard for either hydrogen chloride or sulfur dioxide with which to comply. Affected power plants generate electricity by burning coal refuse — a waste byproduct of coal that when sitting idle can catch fire or pollute bodies of water — as their primary fuel source, generating relatively inexpensive energy.
The bill’s full title is the Satisfying Energy Needs and Saving the Environment Act.