Hill Heat

Senators respond to China’s recent emissions reduction announcement of lowering greenhouse gas intensity by 40 percent from 2005 levels by 2020. Several senators continue to move away from the legislative structure passed by the House of Representatives, and supported by President Obama and most industry advocates of reform.

Jeff Bingaman (D-NM)

E&E News Bill Wicker, a Bingaman spokesman, said the chairman supports the economywide cap-and-trade approach for reducing emissions but also sees some merits in the other ideas. Additionally, several panel members on both sides of the aisle have signaled interest in legislative options beyond the cap-and-trade bill approved earlier this spring in the House and now up for debate in the Senate. “We thought it’d be a good idea to step back and put all of the different policy options into a single hearing,” Wicker said.

Maria Cantwell (D-WA)

E&E News By the time we’re done with financial regulatory reform, everybody’s head is going to be spinning and they’re going to be saying, “Oh my gosh, how can you prevent this from happening again?”

People are moving more toward something that’s much more streamlined. The bottom line is you don’t want to have added volatility to the market when trying to solve [the emissions] problem. And that’s clearly what the futures trading does. It adds volatility. What you want is a predictable price so that people can move forward and diversify.

Robert Casey (D-PA)

E&E News There’s a lot of verification we’re going to have to see before I’d embrace it [China’s announced GHG commitments] and say it’s as positive a development as the Chinese would hope we’d say it is. I’m a little skeptical is maybe the fastest way to say it.

So if we’ve got problems here in terms of working that out and making sure there are enough emission allowances for us to do what we need to do here, you can imagine how much more complicated it gets internationally.

Byron Dorgan (D-ND)

E&E News Some will make the case that if you do financial reform that setting up a Wall Street trading system on carbon securities is less dangerous. I am not interested in setting up a trillion-dollar carbon securities market to tell us what the price of energy is going to be.

E&E News It’s pretty clear to me that our nation is going to continue to use our most abundant resource, which is coal, but we’re going to use it differently. And the question is how do we do that. How do we find the science, technology and research capability to allow us to continue to use coal in a manner that would decarbonize it or use it in a much lower manner? This [CCS funding report] was a unique exercise and a unique product of thought, where several stakeholders have come together on a single issue. . . [It will provide] beneficial pathways for future legislation.

Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)

E&E News The idea would be while the body is working on financial regulation, then during that same time we’ll be getting the energy, the bipartisan group working on energy.

Richard G. Lugar

E&E News I’d not be comfortable if the Copenhagen progress report relied on billions of dollars [in international assistance] anticipated from the U.S. budget that we’ve not debated and will be very contentious.

Lisa Murkowski (D-AK)

E&E News Robert Dillon, a spokesman for Energy and Natural Resources Committee ranking member Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), offered Bingaman praise for keeping an open mind to alternatives. “Everyone assumes cap and trade is the only way to go,” Dillon said. “There’s been a demonization or marginalization of anyone raising other options.” As for Murkowski, a onetime supporter of cap-and-trade legislation, Dillon said, “She’s not promoting one idea over another yet. She’s exploring the options.”

Jay Rockefeller (D-WV)

E&E News The Chinese are a mystery that way. They enter negotiations always with an advantage because nobody knows what they’re going to do, what they’re going to say, or whether they mean it.

Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)

E&E News Unfortunately, we start from a position where there’s fairly considerable basis for skepticism on the enforcement side [for China emissions reductions], which means the administration has got to come up with a pretty solid program. It doesn’t matter what their numbers are if they don’t have to prove them.

Politico If we don’t provide those other technologies a level playing field, we provide an unfair advantage to the nuclear power industry at the expense of the American economy at large.

On Wednesday, December 9th, President Barack Obama will participate in the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 15).

For the first time, the U.S. delegation will have a U.S. Center at the conference. U.S. delegates will keynote a series of events highlighting actions by the Obama Administration to provide domestic and global leadership in the transition to a clean energy economy. Topics will range from energy efficiency investments and global commitments to renewables policy and clean energy jobs. The following keynote events and speakers are currently scheduled:

• Wednesday, December 9th: Taking Action at Home, EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson
• Thursday, December 10th: New Energy Future: the role of public lands in clean energy production and carbon capture, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar
• Friday, December 11th: Clean Energy Jobs in a Global Marketplace, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke
• Monday, December 14th: Leading in Energy Efficiency and Renewables, Energy Secretary Steven Chu
• Tuesday, December 15th: Clean Energy Investments: creating opportunities for rural economies, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack
• Thursday, December 17th: Backing Up International Agreement with Domestic Action, CEQ Chair Nancy Sutley and Assistant to the President Carol Browner

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, whose envoy Todd Stern is in charge of U.S. climate negotiations, was not part of the announcements.

Numerous Democrats are voicing opposition to acting on climate change.

Jeff Bingaman (D-NM)

The Hill “We’ve got all kinds of difference of perspective of where the Senate is and where the votes are and where the Senate should try to move,” Bingaman said of his meeting with the other chairmen. Bingaman, the chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said he would be willing to pass energy legislation separately from a cap-and-trade bill to address climate change.

E&E News It’s pretty clear that there seems to be a developing consensus that we want a more flexible opportunity for all countries to achieve greenhouse gas emission reductions. The idea that the only test of a country’s ability to achieve greenhouse gas reductions is whether they adopt a formal cap is just not necessarily the appropriate measure.

Barbara Boxer (D-CA)

The Hill “I’d love to get it done tomorrow,” said Boxer, who acknowledged others are less intent on moving that quickly.

Blanche Lincoln (D-AR)

The Hill “I’m not in a hurry to do that,” she said of climate change legislation. “I think the energy bill we did in the Senate Energy Committee gets us a long way toward job creation and moving us from an old-energy economy to a new-energy economy, which is really what the objective is — lowering carbon output and lessening dependence on foreign oil.”

Claire McCaskill (R-MO)

Wall Street Journal It’s really big, really, really hard, and is going to make a lot of people mad. Climate fits that category.

Jeff Merkley (D-OR)

Politico There are folks who would say, ‘Well, let’s just shut down coal-powered plants.’ That is not going to happen. You are not going to have 60 votes in the Senate to shut down coal.

John McCain (R-AZ)

Wall Street Journal The delay was “just a matter of reality, they can’t get anything done at this time,” said Sen. John McCain, who has previously supported climate legislation. He has said he wouldn’t support the current Senate proposal because of disagreements over its handling of nuclear energy.

Lisa Murkowski (D-AK)

E&E News You know what, we’d get blamed at Copenhagen if we acted or if we didn’t act. It is what it is.

We’re obviously not going to be doing that [passing a climate bill] prior to Copenhagen. Do we walk into Copenhagen with this label that the U.S. has failed?

As international leaders let the timetable for a successor treaty to the Kyoto Protocol slip to 2010, Republicans call for “starting from scratch” as Democrats and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) hope that spring will be a final deadline for passage of climate legislation.

Ben Cardin (D-MD)

E&E News Conventional wisdom is that you have until the spring to get controversial issues moving. If not, it’s difficult to see getting through closer to the elections.

Kent Conrad (D-ND)

E&E News I’m encouraged by it. Senator Kerry has certainly been good at reaching out. He’s been very serious about reaching out. We’ve been sharing things with him. We have more to share. He’s very good at listening, which is the best way of succeeding around here.

Byron Dorgan (D-ND)

Politico Good policy is going to be left behind by the insistence that the climate change bill has to be done first or together.

Lindsey Graham (R-SC)

E&E News We don’t want it to slip into the summer.

Chuck Grassley (R-IA)

E&E News But I do appreciate what Lindsey Graham is trying to do in the sense of nuclear and more offshore drilling.

Several senators say they would prefer to have a better idea what major developing countries plan to do under the auspices of the U.N. talks before they sign off on any domestic emission restrictions. “That’d make a big difference. If we passed a bill that the rest of the world didn’t follow, then Uncle Sam could soon become Uncle Sucker and export all of our jobs to China.”

Max Baucus (D-Mont.)

Wall Street Journal It’s common understanding that climate-change legislation will not be brought up on the Senate floor and pass the Senate this year.

Tom Harkin (D-Iowa)

AgricultureOnline Quite frankly, I don’t know that we’re going to do anything on it until next year because we have the health bill.

John Kerry (D-Mass.)

Politico As soon as it is practical with respect to the health care debate and financial regulator reform this legislation will come to the floor of the Senate and the United States Senate will do its part.

Wall Street Journal I don’t want to create artificial deadlines which get in the way of our being methodical about this. The main thing to do here is to build the adequate base of support and consensus.

Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.)

Politico I feel the meetings that Sen. Kerry and Graham and I have had so far that we are making some progress here and we can move it along.

Richard Lugar (R-Ind.)

Wall Street Journal I don’t see any climate bill on the table right now that I can support. We really have to start from scratch again.

Max Baucus (D-MT)

Washington Independent I am committed to passing meaningful, balanced climate-change legislation. I am committed to legislation that will protect our land and those whose livelihood depends on it. I want our children and grandchildren to be able to enjoy the outdoors the way that we can today. So I’m going to work to pass climate-change legislation that is both meaningful and that can muster enough votes to become law. [...] Let me be clear. We should work to minimize any job losses. But we should recognize that in the case of acid rain [in the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments], the negative [economic] consequences were far less than projected. We should keep this in mind when similar claims are made about the effects of legislation to address climate change.

Reuters We can not allow our manufacturing industries to fade as result of trade with countries that refuse to negotiate global solutions to global concerns. We must push our trading partners to do their part to curb harmful emissions and we must devise a border measure, consistent with our international obligations, to prevent the carbon leakage that would occur if US manufacturing shifts to countries without effective climate change programs.

John Kerry (D-MA)

DTN Well, EPA is poised to move. Everybody needs to understand that. I’m going to make this as clear as I can: I don’t think anybody is going to wind up [blocking] EPA, because there’s filibuster-proof capacity to prevent that from happening. I’ll personally stand on the Senate floor, day and night, to prevent that from happening. Therefore, success in this is not defined by stopping a Senate bill. The reason is, EPA will then regulate without assistance to coal, without allocation of allowances that help companies to make the transition. And then you’re out there on your own. So the game in town, folks, is here. It’s in the Congress, where we have the ability to mitigate the transitional costs and to be reasonable in the process. That’s something people really need to focus on.

Robert Menendez (D-NJ)

E&E News Right now, plenty of other nations, including China, are ahead of us in manufacturing solar power technology, which better positions them for economic strength in the 21st Century. We have always been a world leader in innovation, and it’s time that we grab this economic opportunity.

Senators lay out their agenda after the Environment and Public Works Committee reported out the Kerry-Boxer Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act.

Max Baucus (D-MT)

E&E News That frees up the Senate, frankly. It frees up all members of the Senate who are interested in climate change, including those on the committee.

I don’t want to say we’re going to do something totally different. I’m respectful of the House allocation.

We have to be sensitive to our own industries, as other countries are sensitive to theirs. I strongly believe that an open trading system benefits all countries. It’d be unwise to retrench.

On his idea for triggers for stronger targets That’s something we can work out. Climate change is going to be with us, legislative efforts are going to be with us for a while. It’s not going to happen tomorrow. Plenty of time to work on this.

Saxby Chambliss (R-GA)

Wall Street Journal The actions the EPA has taken and its plans to regulate greenhouse gases are a serious concern. However, EPA’s actions should not scare Congress into passing bad legislation.

Lindsey Graham (R-SC)

Politico Now, it’s time to find a bill that will make good policy. Clearly, there are not 60 votes for that product.

E&E News I appreciate the committee’s work. Now it’s time to find a bill that can make good policy. Environmental policy needs to be good business policy. If it’s not, there will never be 60 votes.

Judd Gregg (R-NH)

Politico It’s hard to vote on a bill that big without knowing what it’s going to do. I don’t think that bill is viable in its present form, because we don’t know what it does.

Tom Harkin (D-IA)

E&E News on the 50-50 split of allocations to utilities based on retail sales and historic emissions It’s going to be changed. It can’t stay at 50-50. It won’t. It can’t.

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.

Max Baucus (D-Mont.)

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.

Susan Collins (R-Maine)

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.”

Kent Conrad (D-N.D.)

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

Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.)

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.

Judd Gregg (R-N.H.)

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.

Jay Rockefeller (D-W.V.)

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.”

West Virginia residents have spent years battling the loss of Coal River Mountain to mountaintop removal mining. At the end of October, Massey Energy began dynamiting at the site. Opponents of the mountain’s destruction say the Environmental Protection Agency has the full authority and legal and moral obligation under the Clean Water Act to preserve the ecosystem and clean waters of the mountain, the last untouched peak in Coal River Valley. When asked for comment by Hill Heat, EPA spokesman Brendan Gilfillan responded:

EPA is closely examining the company’s compliance with all legal requirements.

As the EPA conducts its legal investigation, the blasting continues.

Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.)

E&E News I am disappointed that Senator Boxer and the Democrats have reported another 1,000-page bill without a full understanding of what it will cost. Republicans want and expect to participate in any bill about clean energy, but taxpayers expect us to know what this bill costs before we start voting on it.

Max Baucus (D-Mont.)

E&E News I’m going to work to get climate change legislation that can get 60 votes through the U.S. Senate and signed into law.

Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.)

E&E News We believe that to go back to another analysis when we already have an unprecedented amount of work based on 350,000 pages would be a waste of taxpayer dollars, would be duplicative.

E&E News Now we take the best of Kerry-Boxer, the best of the energy bill, the best ideas from Agriculture, from Commerce, and meld together a bill. And this was a very important step in that process.

Susan Collins (R-Maine)

E&E News The members of the EPW Committee have got to make decisions on the bill that’s before them. And to require them to make decisions on incomplete information strikes me as foolhardy and as foreclosing any possibility of Republican support. I don’t know why you’d want to do that.

James Inhofe (R-Ok.)

E&E News In the history of this, we’ve not been able to find a time when a bill has been marked up without minority participation.

Harry Reid (D-Nev.)

EnviroKnow The committee’s action today is a critically important step toward crafting a good strong clean energy and climate bill. There is much more work yet to do to obtain broad support for bipartisan legislation that can quickly put our nation on a path of reducing emissions cost-effectively and creating jobs and a cleaner more secure future.

Arlen Specter (D-Penn.)

E&E News I think the senators you have mentioned will look to substance, rather than form. And there will be that EPA analysis at a later time. This bill is going to be changed markedly, when you move down the road. So they will get substantively what they want.

Copenhagen is very important symbolically. And Copenhagen would have been more impressed had we moved further. But Copenhagen will be impressed at least that we have the resoluteness to move ahead now.