Global warming legislation expected to be approved by a Senate subcommittee tomorrow would also force significant air pollution cuts beyond current law for coal-fired power plants — reducing emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and mercury, according to an environmental group’s modeling.

The bill’s sponsors, Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and John Warner (R-Va.), are touting the Clean Air Task Force’s analysis to show their bill generates “massive co-benefits” that could save tens of thousands of American lives every year and also reduce asthma attacks.

But the advocacy group’s study isn’t a complete slam dunk for the Lieberman-Warner camp. Two competing bills from Sens. Tom Carper (D-Del.) and Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), respectively, which focus only on electric utilities, would guarantee similar air pollution reductions from power plants nearly 15 years sooner.

House Democrats are moving forward with legislation on several tracks that could stall the development of new liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals offshore and on coastlines.

Yesterday, the Natural Resources Committee considered a bill that would designate a Massachusetts river as “wild and scenic,” which could prohibit a proposed terminal there from receiving a federal license or assistance. And the Coast Guard reauthorization bill on the move in the House would require federal security reviews of proposals to build or expand LNG facilities.

Rep. Barney Frank’s (D-Mass.) H.R. 415 would designate 40 miles of the Taunton River as wild and scenic, from the headwaters all the way to Mount Hope Bay in Fall River, Mass., the site of a proposed LNG terminal.

The Senate Commerce Committee voted yesterday to reauthorize the federal statute that protects coral reefs, sending the measure on to the Senate floor.

Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye’s (D-Hawaii) rewrite of the Coral Reef Conservation Act, S. 1580, passed by voice vote in a markup yesterday. It is expected to move through the Senate floor as a “unanimous consent” item without extended debate.

The bill would codify a coral reef task force first created in the original legislation seven years ago and give the administration more authority to enter reef conservation agreements and prosecute ships that harm reefs. It would require agencies to report on conservation and protection activities and expand the coral reef conservation program.

ATLANTA — When Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue accused the federal government of draining metro Atlanta’s reservoir to provide water for the benefit of endangered mussels and fish, he echoed the complaint six years ago of another Republican governor about an imperilled species.

Then-Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne — who is now Interior secretary — took a stand against the federal reintroduction of grizzly bears into a wilderness area on the Idaho-Montana line, saying it would expose people to “a flesh-eating, antisocial animal.

“Folks, this could be the first land management action in history to result in sure death and injury of citizens,” Kempthorne said in his 2001 State of the State Address. “We will challenge this blatant confrontation to our state sovereignty in federal court.”

The House Ways and Means Committee will likely send a U.S.-Peru trade deal to the House floor tomorrow that includes several environmental protection provisions.

The committee is scheduled to mark up and vote on the measure tomorrow without amendment, with the agreement expected on the House floor next week. Under fast-track rules, it cannot be changed.

The trade deal’s environmental section aims to stem the flow of illegally logged mahogany from Peru. Also, the parties would agree to adhere to multilateral environmental treaties on species protection, wetlands, marine pollution and other issues.

Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) may have emerged as the most promising target for sponsors of a climate change bill who need at least one more vote to move their legislation through a Senate subcommittee later this week.

A well-placed source yesterday said the New Jersey Democrat is open to supporting “America’s Climate Security Act,” or S. 2191. But Lautenberg’s vote at the Thursday markup hinges on whether the bill’s co-authors — Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and John Warner (R-Va.) — agree to some important changes.

“He’s gettable,” this source said.

Former software executive Shai Agassi, who worked at SAP AG until last spring, has raised $200 million to try making electric cars more practical and less expensive than those fueled by gasoline.

Two huge limitations of electric vehicles are their cost and their need for frequent battery recharging.

Less than two weeks after forest fires first tore through Southern California, burning 500,000 acres and displacing thousands of people, the House Select Energy Independence and Global Warming Committee will examine the links between wildfires and climate change.

In recent years, federal agencies and scientists have tied global warming to longer and hotter summer wildfire seasons and the spread of invasive species and diseases.

Overall, North America’s annual window of high fire ignition risk could increase by 30 percent this century, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reported earlier this year. Fires and insect outbreaks are likely to intensify as temperatures rise, the panel found, causing drier soils and longer growing seasons.

House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Nick Rahall’s (D-W.Va.) proposed reform of the 1872 hardrock mining law heads to the House floor this week, where it is likely to face vocal opposition from Republicans concerned about the bill’s economic effects.

After two markup sessions and a host of amendments — many by Republicans aimed at watering down the proposal — H.R. 2262 cleared the House Natural Resources Committee last week with a vote along party lines.

Ian G. Simmons