Hill Heat

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.

Senators attempt to negotiate the partisan battle over moving the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act (S. 1733) forward.

Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.)

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.

Tom Harkin (D-Iowa)

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.

John Kerry (D-Mass.)

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.

Richard Lugar (R-Ind.)

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.

Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.)

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.

George Voinovich (R-Ohio)

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.

Active holds are bolded.

White House

• Nancy Sutley, White House Council on Environmental Quality Chairwoman – John Barrasso (R-Wyo.)
• Cass Sunstein, OIRA director – Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.)
• John Holdren, Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy – Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), anonymous

Department of Energy

• Richard Newell, administrator of the Energy Information Administration – John McCain (R-Ariz.)
• Ines Triay, assistant secretary of environmental management – Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.)
• Kristina Johnson, undersecretary for energy – Kyl
• Steven Koonin, undersecretary for science – Kyl
• Scott Blake Harris, general counsel – Kyl

Environmental Protection Agency

• Lisa Jackson, administrator – Barrasso
• Gina McCarthy, assistant administrator for air and radiation – Barrasso
• Robert Perciasepe, deputy administrator – George Voinovich (R-Ohio)

Interior

• David Hayes, deputy secretary – Robert Bennett (R-Utah), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska)
• Hilary Tompkins, solicitor – Bennett, Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), and other anonymous Rs
• Jon Jarvis, National Park Service director – Coburn
• Wilma Lewis, assistant secretary for land and mineral management – McCain
• Robert Abbey, Bureau of Land Management administrator – McCain
• Joseph Pizarchik, Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement – anonymous D

State

• Harold Koh, legal adviser to the State Department – Jim DeMint (R-S.C.)
• Susan Burk, Special Representative for Non-Proliferation – DeMint
• Thomas Shannon Jr., ambassador to Brazil – DeMint, Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa)
• Ellen Tauscher, undersecretary of state for arms control and international security – Kyl, released June 25
• Arturo Valenzuela, assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs – DeMint

Labor

• Hilda Solis, Secretary of Labor – anonymous R
• Craig Becker, National Labor Relations Board – McCain

Commerce

• Jane Lubchenco, director of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration – Menendez, anonymous

Federal Emergency Management Agency

• Craig Fugate, director – David Vitter (R-La.), released May 12

Commodity Futures Trading Commission

• Gary Gensler, chairman – Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), released May 14

Kit Bond (R-MO)

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.

Robert Byrd (D-WV)

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.”

Tom Carper (D-DE)

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.

Robert Casey (D-PA)

Politico The target’s certainly a change from where the House was, and that’s going to be a subject of debate.

Byron Dorgan (D-ND)

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.

Lindsey Graham (R-SC)

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.

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.

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.’

Barbara Boxer (D-CA)

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.

[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.

Lindsey Graham (R-SC)

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.

James Inhofe (R-OK)

EPW The victims of cap-and-trade can’t just move on and get new, green jobs.

John Kerry (D-MA)

E&E News America’s leadership is certainly on the line here.

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.

Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ)

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.