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Update: 11:57 a.m.- The joint resolution failed in the U.S. Senate with 46 votes in support of it and 53 votes against it. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., also voted against the resolution.

U.S. Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., is in opposition to a GOP resolution coming before the Senate today disapproving of environmental rules regarding clean air standards.

Senate Joint Resolution 37 would reverse the Environmental Protection Agency's rule limiting the amount of pollutants, particularly mercury, that are allowed to be released into the air by coal-fired power plants and manufacturing facilities in the U.S.

“I have consistently supported the EPA’s efforts to limit the emission of harmful and toxic pollutants, like mercury,” Brown said in a statement. “The people of Massachusetts expect and deserve to breathe clean air and have vital health protections in place.”

Brown's Democratic rival in the Massachusetts Senate race, Elizabeth Warren, also opposes the resolution according to Alethea Harney, her press secretary.

“Elizabeth supports the EPA’s efforts to promote public health by limiting toxic emissions," Harney said. "Not only will the Mercury and Air Toxic Standards improve the well-being of Massachusetts families, the regulations will generate significant cost savings and will help create jobs for American workers."

Introduced by U.S. Sen. James Inhofe, a Republican from Warren's home state of Oklahoma, the resolution carries strong support from a consortium of manufacturers who say it is too expensive to adhere to the EPA's Mercury and Air Toxic Standards rule, also known as MATS, or Utility MACT, and the group warns of increased costs which will be passed on to consumers.

"Under several rules directly impacting power plants, electricity costs will increase

by more than 10 percent in some of the largest manufacturing regions of our nation,

resulting in a loss of 1.65 million jobs by 2020, according to National Economic Research

Associates," wrote Aric Newhouse, senior vice president for policy and government relations at the National Association of Manufacturers, in a letter to senators. "In addition, there will likely be serious grid reliability issues as coal-fired power plants are taken off-line. So far, 169 coal-fired electricity-generating units in 21 states are expected to be taken off-line by 2015 due to Utility MACT and other rules."

During the debate on the resolution in the Senate, Republican and Democrats sparred while senators from states where coal is an important part of the economic landscape broke ranks with a different kind of plea.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-West Virginia, said that although he is currently frustrated with the management of the coal companies which dominate the employment landscape in the Mountain State, he believes clean coal is an option for the future and he urged his colleagues to consider that when voting on the resolution.

Fellow West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin said he is in favor of the resolution especially considering the impact it could have on the jobs of thousands of his state's residents. Manchin said a one size fits all approach to energy for a country with diverse geographic concerns doesn't work.

Brown and Warren's opposition to the resolution was echoed by the White House as the Obama administration released a statement this week saying the commander in chief would veto the legislation if it passed in the Senate.

"The Mercury and Air Toxics Standards will ensure that the nation's power plants install modern, widely available technologies to limit harmful pollution – leveling the playing field for power plants that already have such controls in place," the Obama administration wrote in its statement. "The standards are achievable; pollution control equipment that can help meet them already is installed at more than half of the nation's coal-fired power plants. Numerous studies, including analysis by the Department of Energy, have projected that the standards can be met without adversely affecting the adequacy of electric generation resources in any region of the country."

Brown's decision to break ranks with other Republicans earned him the praise of ConservAmerica, a GOP environmental group.

“We commend Senator Brown on his vote to protect the people of Massachusetts from what Ronald Reagan called ‘the destructive trespass of pollution,’" said Rob Sisson, president of ConservAmerica. "Senator Brown’s brand of thoughtful conservatism is a standard others in Washington, D.C., should emulate."

The debate over the EPA's MATS rule comes as the public hearing portion of the agency's new carbon pollution proposal limit for new power plants comes to an end on June 25.

More than 1 million Americans, including approximately 31,000 Massachusetts residents, previously signed on in support of the EPA's carbon limit proposal while it is largely opposed by several industry groups, coal-producing states and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.