ENERGY BILL BY EARTH DAY?

Senators push for energy bill by Earth Day
Jennifer Dlouhy, April 13, 2010 (Houston Chronicle)

"Offshore drilling is emerging as a major flashpoint in congressional climate change negotiations as pressure builds on senators to produce an energy bill before the Senate's schedule is consumed by a Supreme Court confirmation and election-year politics.

"Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., said he and the other senators drafting the legislation, Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., are on track to release a specific plan by Earth Day on April 22…They hope to propose legislation that would cap some greenhouse gas emissions, boost domestic oil and natural gas production, and spur new nuclear power — all while still attracting the support of at least 60 senators who would be needed to pass the measure…"

Some insiders say the new legislation will include a version of the simplified Cap&Dividend proposal.(click to enlarge)

"One of the potential obstacles: whether to expand on President Barack Obama's proposal for eventual drilling along part of the East Coast by giving coastal states more power over drilling in nearby waters…They also are considering provisions that would give states much more control over what happens near their coastlines.

"But it could be tough for the climate change negotiators to define a boundary that will please everyone — from oil-patch Democrats Mark Begich of Alaska and Mary Landrieu of Louisiana to New Jersey environmentalists Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez…The negotiators will be locked in meetings with industry groups and other senators this week to fashion legislation that could be debated by the full Senate later this spring…"

Will Cap&Dividend's reduced emissions cuts be weak enough to satisfy opponents of the House bill? (click to enlarge)

"…[Kerry, Graham and Lieberman] are scrapping the economywide cap-and-trade plan [passed by the House that would put new, nationwide limits on greenhouse gas emissions and empower companies to buy and sell permits] in favor of a sector-based approach that would limit emissions from electric utilities, a possible new carbon fee on transportation fuels and eventual caps on emissions from manufacturers and other industrial facilities.

"The group also is adding provisions to spur [so-called “clean” coal] and incentives for nuclear power…[in the hope of] support from Democrats who back more expanded drilling and a handful of Republicans who have indicated they could support some kind of climate change measure…One of their targets, Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn.…[likes] the sector-based plan [more] than an economywide cap-and-trade approach to limiting emissions…But in one more sign of the challenges facing negotiators, Alexander wants any emissions caps to be limited to utilities — and not extended to manufacturers…"