Senate Watch: Bingaman, Boxer, Lincoln, McCaskill, Merkley, McCain, Murkowski, Reid, Rockefeller, Sanders, Whitehouse 1
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.
Barbara Boxer (D-CA)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.
Blanche Lincoln (D-AR)The Hill “I’d love to get it done tomorrow,” said Boxer, who acknowledged others are less intent on moving that quickly.
Claire McCaskill (R-MO)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.”
Jeff Merkley (D-OR)Wall Street Journal It’s really big, really, really hard, and is going to make a lot of people mad. Climate fits that category.
John McCain (R-AZ)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.
Lisa Murkowski (D-AK)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.
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?
Jay Rockefeller (D-WV)The Hill When asked Tuesday about the timing for climate change legislation, he told reporters that “we are going to try to do that sometime in the spring.”
The Hill Most of the country doesn’t know what cap-and-trade is. They have no idea. I would say half the Senate have no idea what cap-and-trade is and could not explain it.
He said climate legislation should not reach the floor before July of next year, putting the controversial bill on the schedule only months before Election Day. “You have to get this stuff out to the American people before you change their lives, and we are not paying any attention to that,” Rockefeller said.
Rockefeller said his state would be the most affected and that his residents need more time to know what the bill is about. “Right now they don’t, and therefore they are terrified and furious, and I don’t blame them,” he said.
National Journal I’ve got a responsibility to let them know what their options are. But nobody can talk about options right now. I think my problem with climate change right now is that it’s a subject that relatively few people know about. It’s sort of an elitist subject.
Bernie Sanders (I-VT)Politico They don’t have a deal until they get the coal-state senators, and they are a long way from doing it. They’re going to need us to pass a bill.
Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)Politico “I’ll do everything I can to oppose that,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said of the lowered targets.
Politico I think there’s a danger that coal interests will demand such a large share of the proceeds of the bill that it creates a backlash. So I think they’ve got to be aware of their own prudential limitations.
Senate Watch: Cardin, Conrad, Dorgan, Graham, Grassley, Kerry, Lieberman, Lugar, Murkowski, Rockefeller
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)Kent Conrad (D-ND)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.
Byron Dorgan (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.
Lindsey Graham (R-SC)Politico Good policy is going to be left behind by the insistence that the climate change bill has to be done first or together.
Chuck Grassley (R-IA)E&E News We don’t want it to slip into the summer.
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.”
Joe Lieberman (I-CT)E&E News If you get into an artificial timeline, then you don’t give people the opportunity to feel they’re being listened to, or their ideas are being processed. Let’s just work it day to day and we’ll see where we are. Maybe something breaks and you move faster than you thought? Maybe something slows you down because you need another figure or analysis? What I feel confident about, and what I think is important for the legislative tracking, if you will, is every day we’re making progress.
Richard Lugar (R-IN)E&E News Lieberman said he hoped Baucus would chime in before Reid sends the overall bill on to CBO and EPA for analysis. “The framework won’t be whole without that.”
E&E News I don’t want to deter for a moment the enthusiasm of this particular conference. But I need some benchmarks of how we measure what occurs. I want to know the costs, what’s anticipated, what the outline really creates at a time when really my constituents and those of my colleagues are talking principally in this country about unemployment, about the recovery of our economy, of how we make headway in terms of conservation efforts to save money.
Lisa Murkowski (D-AK)I don’t see any climate legislation on the table here now that I’d support. We really have to start from scratch again, and I think there are ways of doing that.
Jay Rockefeller (D-WV)E&E News Energy and Natural Resources Committee ranking member Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said she is willing to work on climate and energy legislation with the three senators “if they can find some middle path that perhaps we haven’t pursued.” “It depends how it’s handled. If the way EPW handled climate change is the way it’s going to roll out from here, it’s doomed.”
E&E News There’s some possibility of people saying that it’s too controversial a bill in an election year. Which is sort of the opposite of how a democracy ought to work. You go ahead and take your chances on that and you get re-elected. But people’s business comes first.
Senate Watch, Slowing Progress: Baucus, Harkin, Kerry, Lieberman, Lugar
Tom Harkin (D-Iowa)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.
John Kerry (D-Mass.)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.
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.
Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.)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.
Richard Lugar (R-Ind.)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.
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.
Senate Watch: Baucus, Kerry, Menendez
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.
John Kerry (D-MA)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.
Robert Menendez (D-NJ)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.
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.
Senate Watch: Baucus, Chambliss, Graham, Gregg, Harkin, Murkowski, Nelson, Rockefeller, Specter
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.
Saxby Chambliss (R-GA)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.
Lindsey Graham (R-SC)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.
Politico Now, it’s time to find a bill that will make good policy. Clearly, there are not 60 votes for that product.
Judd Gregg (R-NH)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.
Tom Harkin (D-IA)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.
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.
E&E News I think it has left clearly a very bitter taste in many members’ mouths about how we’re part of a process on a very important issue. This may stall things out for a period of time.
Politico It dooms that particular legislation. The question is what comes next. We will see what Plan B is.
Ben Nelson (D-NE)E&E News We’ve been talking a lot about starting over with a blank piece of paper. I think this might allow for that. If that’s the case, that’s a positive.
Jay Rockefeller (D-WV)Politico I don’t know that I’m playing a key role, but we’re talking. I think that’s important.
Arlen Specter (D-PA)E&E News What they have to understand is that the Senate is not ready to travel at their rate. And that the balance on this is among people like myself who come from coal state and manufacturing states who can’t just sort of meet the Copenhagen deadline. We’ve got to be satisfied that it’s a good bill and I’m not at this point.
Politico I think the bill could have been improved substantially.
Senate Watch: Boxer, Harkin, Kerry, Lugar, Lautenberg, Voinovich
Senators attempt to negotiate the partisan battle over moving the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act (S. 1733) forward.
Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.)Tom Harkin (D-Iowa)E&E News We think this is going the extra mile for our friends on the other side, and we really hope they’ll return to the table. They have every reason to do that.
John Kerry (D-Mass.)E&E News I believe that Americans will accept higher prices as necessary for increasing our energy security and making necessary reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, but they also expect that the burden should be shared across the country.
Richard Lugar (R-Ind.)E&E News Over the years, whether it was with the leadership of Senator Jack Heinz, Senator John McCain or Senator John Warner, we’ve made progress on climate change when we’ve been able to overcome partisan divisions. We’ve never needed to do that more than today.
Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.)E&E News [Boxer’s planned markup] would not be constructive as far as progress on the bill is concerned. I suspect that there’d be no particular reason for many members to support it.
George Voinovich (R-Ohio)E&E News Their behavior challenges everything that we’re about here: “If you don’t like it, turn your back and walk out.” It’s almost like school children over there.
E&E News I think we’ve made it pretty clear that we want a complete analysis of the bill. It’s been made clear to her that’s what we want. I think it’s a sensible approach because of the fact this is probably the most important piece of legislation this committee has undertaken since the Clean Air Act itself, maybe even more important.
Senate Watch, Targets and Allocations: Bond, Byrd, Carper, Casey, Dorgan, Graham, Inhofe, Murkowski, Rockefeller, Specter, Vitter, Voinovich
Robert Byrd (D-WV)E&E News It’s a smaller pie. People want to know what’s going on. We’re still trying to figure out how these complicated, cockamamie schemes are going to work. Anything that’s that complicated is by definition highly suspect and the more I hear, the more I suspect.
Tom Carper (D-DE)Reuters Byrd praised Boxer’s additions in the bill that put more focus on clean coal technology. But he warned, “I will actively oppose any bill that would harm the workers, families, industries, or our esource-based economy in West Virginia.”
Robert Casey (D-PA)E&E News Carper said he would pursue his measure to cut power plants’ emissions of soot, mercury, SOx and NOxas stand-alone legislation if it does not make it into the bill. “One way or another,” he said.
Byron Dorgan (D-ND)Politico The target’s certainly a change from where the House was, and that’s going to be a subject of debate.
Lindsey Graham (R-SC)Politico We’ll see what they put together in EPW, but I think it’s going to be very hard for them to pass legislation unless they have substantial discussions with moderate senators and address their concerns.
The Hill This administration is not going to allow offshore drilling for oil and gas unless it’s part of some bigger deal. I don’t think you’ll ever have offshore drilling for oil and gas until you marry it up with emissions controls. They don’t have 60 votes for environmental policy in the House and the Senate because it’s bad for business. All of these bills, I couldn’t support because they’re cap and trade legislation that really does put us at a competitive disadvantage.
Lisa Murkowski (D-AK)Washington Post Science is not settled! Everyone knows it’s not settled!
Jay Rockefeller (D-WV)E&E News An exercise akin to doling out pieces of a pie. But as climate legislation is developed in the Senate, we’re faced with a hard reality. There aren’t enough pieces left to satisfy the groups vying for them to repeat this process a second time.
Arlen Specter (D-PA)Reuters An aide to West Virginia Democratic Senator John Rockefeller said the tougher emissions goal is unrealistic and harmful as there is not enough time to deploy the carbon capture and storage and energy efficiency technologies.
David Vitter (R-LA)Politico New West Politics “There is a great deal to be gained by certainty so people can make plans. If the EPA continues to have flexibility we don’t know where we are. . . . That’s really our job.
Heritage This legislation represents a new tax in the order of more than $1,700 per American household annually, and, if it’s passed, American families can expect to see considerable increases in the cost of electricity, gas, food and utilities. It is clear that most Americans families’ standard of living will be reduced if this cap-and-trade bill is approved by Congress.
George Voinovich (R-OH)The greatest opportunity for investment in new technologies is revenue generated from increased domestic energy production. Recent analysis suggests that increased domestic resource production could generate $8 trillion in GDP, $2.2 trillion in incremental tax receipts and perhaps two million jobs or more – all without borrowing a dime or increasing taxes even a penny.
NASDAQ California is going to make out like a bandit with this legislation. To jam this thing through here is not going to be good and America is going to be very, very upset about it.
Senate Watch, Strength of Targets: Baucus, Boxer, Graham, Inhofe, Kerry, Lautenber, Sanders, Specter, Stabenow, Voinovich
As hearings begin on the Kerry-Boxer Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act (S. 1733), senators are staking out their positions on whether the regulations in the bill should be strengthened or weakened.
Max Baucus (D-MT)E&E News Speaking at the start of an Environment and Public Works Committee hearing where he is the second highest-ranking member, the Montana Democrat said he wanted to weaken the bill’s 2020 target for greenhouse gas emissions—now 20 percent below 2005 levels. He did not name a specific midterm target for the heat-trapping gases, instead telling reporters he hoped for “some modification.” The six-term senator also said he hoped to attach pre-emption language to the Senate climate bill, S. 1733, that stops U.S. EPA from implementing a 2007 Supreme Court opinion that opens the door to new greenhouse gas emission standards on industry.
Barbara Boxer (D-CA)The legislation before us is about our economy. Montana, with our resource-based agriculture and tourism economies, cannot afford the unmitigated impacts of climate change. But we also cannot afford the unmitigated affects of climate change legislation. That’s why I support passing common-sense legislation that reduces greenhouse gas emissions while protecting our economy. The key word in that sentence is ‘passing.’
E&E News No climate bill has ever had this level of review, and the Obama administration stands behind this analysis.
This bill is the best insurance against a dangerous future. It is a responsible approach that sets attainable goals for gradual reductions in carbon emissions and it protects consumers, businesses and workers as we move toward clean energy. This need for bipartisanship, believe me, I’d give anything if had a John Warner still sitting here. We don’t have it. Climate change, global warming isn’t waiting for who’s a Democrat or who’s a Republican. Either we’re going to deal with this problem, or we’re not.
Lindsey Graham (R-SC)[on weakening targets] I don’t think it’s necessary, because we’re so down on carbon, by about 8 or 9 percent, so the real goal is going to be really easy to meet.
James Inhofe (R-OK)E&E News Graham told reporters he hoped to form a “working group” with Kerry and the Obama administration that could serve as a forum for senators who do not sit on the relevant committees. “What we’re going to do is start with a clean sheet of paper and say, ‘What does it take?’” Graham said.
John Kerry (D-MA)EPW The victims of cap-and-trade can’t just move on and get new, green jobs.
E&E News America’s leadership is certainly on the line here.
Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ)E&E News It’s really a much lower percentage, frankly, by 2020. We’ll see what happens on the floor on that. I’m open to talking to Max. We’ll see where we wind up.
E&E News Senator Baucus is a major figure in the Senate. The fact is, he has a different attitude than I, based on the needs of what he sees in his state. I wouldn’t hesitate to remind him there’s a national good that can come out of this, and to see if we can persuade him.
Arlen Specter (D-PA)E&E News I think 20 percent is a conservative number. We’ll fight to make it higher, but we certainly are going to oppose strenuously any effort to lower the number.
E&E News We’re all concerned about job loss.
Debbie Stabenow (D-MI)Every part of the bill is now under analysis. We’re wading through a very complex piece of legislation. And there are going to be a lot of factors to consider, and I’m not prepared to make a judgment before the opening statements are made.
George Voinovich (R-OH)E&E News Certainly it depends on how it’s all put together, but the president was talking about a lower number. I think we should look at a lower number.
E&E News Why are we trying to jam down this legislation now? Wouldn’t it be smarter to take our time and do it right like we didn’t do it the last time around when we had this legislation in the works?
S. 1733, Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act: Impacts & Adaptation
- Shari T. Wilson, Secretary, Maryland Department of the Environment
- Ronald E. Young, President, California Association of Sanitation Agencies
- Dr. Peter C. Frumhoff, Chief Scientist, Climate Campaign, Union of Concerned Scientists
- Larry J. Schweiger, President and Chief Executive Officer, National Wildlife Federation
- Fawn Sharp, President, Quinault Indian Nation
- Jim Sims, President and Chief Executive Officer, Western Business Roundtable
- Kenneth P. Green, Resident Scholar, American Enterprise Institute
S. 1733, Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act: Electric Sector
- David Crane, President and Chief Executive Officer, NRG Energy, Inc.
- Ralph Izzo, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President, Public Service Enterprise Group Incorporated (PSEG)
- Kevin Law, President and Chief Executive Officer, Long Island Power Authority
- Nathaniel Keohane, Director of Economic Policy and Analysis, Environmental Defense Fund
- Joel Bluestein, Senior Vice President, ICF International
- Barry Hart, Chief Executive Officer, Association of Missouri Electric Cooperatives
- Dustin Johnson, Commissioner, South Dakota Public Utilities Commission