Hill Heat

Senators respond to the Environment and Public Works Committee reporting out the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act (S. 1733) despite a Republican boycott.

E&E News There’s no doubt that this Congress is going to pass climate change legislation. I don’t know if it’s going to be this year—probably next year.

E&E News Collins also criticized the EPW Committee process yesterday. “It’s certainly going to make it much more difficult for people like me, who believe we need to have some sort of climate change legislation, to take seriously what the committee produced.”

E&E News I want to see agriculture treated more fairly.

E&E News I have almost no interest in supporting something where we create a trillion-dollar carbon security market and have the investment bankers and speculators trade on Monday and Tuesday so we can find out what our energy is going to cost on Thursday and Friday.

E&E News “I found it surprising that the committee would vote it out without knowing what it does, which they don’t know because EPA hasn’t told us, hasn’t had time to score it.” Gregg said he is not a solid “no” vote despite the EPW Committee tumult. “I presume that a lot is going to happen before it’s completed,” he said.

E&E News Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), for example, said that he met with coal producer Arch Coal yesterday morning, and that the company wants the bill to go away. “And I understand that, but I mean, if it goes away, then natural gas will rule the world. And I’m not quite ready for that.”