WASHINGTON —The Environmental Protection Agency moved Thursday to more tightly control air pollution from large power plants, factories and oil refineries, a step to limit emissions widely blamed for global warming.

The EPA said it is completing a rule requiring large polluters to reduce the amounts of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that they release into the air. Those emissions can boost many allergens and worsen smog, which can trigger asthma attacks and other respiratory ailments.

The rule would require companies to install better technology and improve energy efficiency whenever they build, or significantly modify, a plant.

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said the rule applies only to large polluters such as power plants, refineries and cement production facilities that collectively are responsible for 70 percent of greenhouse gas emissions from stationary sources in the United States.

Jackson said the rule sets commonsense standards that will clean the air and protect public health, while avoiding burdensome regulations that could harm farms and small and medium-sized businesses.

“There is no denying our responsibility to protect the planet for our children and grandchildren,” she said in a statement. “It’s long past time we unleashed our American ingenuity and started building the efficient, prosperous clean energy economy of the future.”

The EPA announcement comes a day after an energy and climate bill was introduced in the Senate that seeks to accomplish many of the same goals.

 

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