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U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., describes a recently revised Senate bill to cap greenhouse gas emissions as a job killer.

"The Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act" would allow polluters to buy and sell vouchers to meet a nationwide emissions limit that would decrease over the years. As written, the legislation would require the nation's carbon pollution to drop 20 percent by 2020 and 80 percent by 2050 from 2005 levels.

Alexander is not impressed.

"It deliberately kills jobs and it deliberately makes Americans poor," he said during a conference call with reporters on Monday.

Modeled on a market-based plan, enacted during the first Bush presidency, that reduced acid rain in the 1990s, the cap-and-trade system would apply only to the largest polluters in the country, around 7,500 facilities that account for nearly three-quarters of U.S. carbon pollution.

According to the legislation summary, the mechanism is designed to let the private sector seek out cost-effective ways to meet the pollution reduction goals. Major polluters would be required to turn in one "carbon credit" for the right to pollute one ton of carbon.

For his part, the Tennessee Republican advocates reducing emissions by building 100 new nuclear power plants in the United States during the next 20 years. The two-term senator also wants to encourage the production of electric cars and trucks, exploring offshore for oil and gas and increased funding for research and development of cost-effective renewable energy.