WASHINGTON-Senator John Edwards said Thursday he will help marshal opposition to a so-called Clean Skies proposal that would let power plants spew more pollution.

"This giveaway to insider industries ought to be called Dirty Skies," Senator Edwards said. "It will make the air dirtier and make kids and seniors sicker across North Carolina and across America."

The legislation drafted by the Bush administration and introduced on Thursday in Congress would supersede stronger provisions of the existing Clean Air Act.

Compared to the current law, the president's plan would allow more emissions of sulfur, more nitrogen oxides, and three times more mercury emissions in 2018. The increased mercury emissions would occur even though the Environmental Protection Agency reported earlier this week that mercury can cause mental retardation in children.

In North Carolina, the impact would be particularly devastating. Every year, some 1,800 North Carolinians die prematurely from pollution and soot. In response to this public health crisis, North Carolina lawmakers last year passed a Clean Smokestacks law to cut pollution emissions in the state dramatically. The standards in the president's proposed Clear Skies Act are far weaker than the standards in North Carolina's law.

The Bush administration plan also would effectively eliminate a requirement in current law known as new source review, which requires old factories increasing emissions to install modern pollution control equipment. The law would eliminate protections for specific communities that suffer high pollution, including much of Western North Carolina, and it would eliminate the right of states like North Carolina to protect themselves against pollution from upwind states such as Tennessee.

"I will do everything in my power to stop a bill that puts polluters ahead of people," Senator Edwards said. "People in North Carolina and around the country deserve clean air, not a giant giveaway to polluters."

Senator Edwards has cosponsored legislation by Senator Jim Jeffords of Vermont that would impose stricter restrictions on emissions, including carbon dioxide, a leading cause of global warming ignored by the Bush plan.