REID TO GO FOR UTILITY CAP

Reid warms to July climate vote
Darren Samuelsohn (w/Coral Davenport and Kendra Marr), July 13, 2010 (Politico)

"Senate Democratic leaders are set to roll the dice this month on a comprehensive energy and climate bill, including a cap on greenhouse gases from power plants, even though they don’t yet have the 60 votes…Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) confirmed… he would gamble on the high-stakes legislation …[in] a full Senate debate as early as the week of July 26.

"Reid confirmed the bill will have four parts: an oil spill response; a clean-energy and job-creation title based on work done in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee; a tax package from the Senate Finance Committee; and a section that deals with greenhouse gas emissions from the electric utility industry…"

Senator Bingaman has just released details of his utility-only caps. (click to enlarge)

"Proposals for tackling emissions from power plants are emerging from several Senate offices…Reid insisted that the proposal he will introduce in about 10 days should not be called a cap-and-trade plan or even a cap on emissions…Besides vocal opposition from nearly all Senate Republicans, he faces concerns from liberal Democrats that the legislation is too weak and strong skepticism from moderate Democrats who would rather stay away from any type of mandatory carbon limits…

"Environmental groups, though, welcomed Reid’s decision to pencil in plans for the floor debate and insisted they’re prepared to weather attacks from their opponents…"

This picture of Senator Reid came after he shepherded the 2007 energy bill to passage. Democrats are hoping experience counts. (click to enlarge)

"Democrats are making their push without any clear sense of how industry will respond to their plans…[and] the Edison Electric Institute, the trade group for most investor-owned power companies…[still is] without any clear picture of where Reid would take the climate debate…Support from the power companies is critical for the climate legislation to pass…[and that] could be possible, given the industry’s experience in a cap-and-trade system for acid rain, which was signed into law by President George H.W. Bush as part of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments…

"Reid and the Democrats can be sure they won’t have support from all Republicans…Anticipating the GOP attacks, Lieberman told reporters that the push toward the 60 votes would require more effort from President Barack Obama and his top advisers…Obama administration officials are already in the middle of the fight…"