Hill Heat

Following the release of the Kerry-Boxer Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act yesterday, Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.V.) called the bill “a disappointing step in the wrong direction.”

Hill Heat has learned that Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) shares this view.

Nelson’s energy and environmental director Erick Lutt told Hill Heat in a telephone interview that while the Senator had not finished going over the entire bill, or made an official statement, Nelson “cannot support” Kerry-Boxer.

When asked if Nelson would join Republicans in a filibuster against climate legislation, Lutt said “it depends on what ends up in the bill.” Upon further questioning, Lutt admitted that Nelson standing with the GOP in a filibuster wasn’t “beyond possibility.”

Senators Arlen Specter (D-Penn.) and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), though uncommitted on Kerry-Boxer, have pledged to fight a Republican filibuster.

“I am not committed to cap-and-trade under any circumstance,” Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) told Roll Call, however.

“It’s a difficult issue,” added Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.).

From the Wonk Room.

On Earth Day, President Obama is visiting a “wind turbine manufacturer in Iowa” to “champion his push to cap greenhouse gas emissions and boost renewable alternatives to fossil fuels,” as top officials testify before Congress on behalf of action on green jobs for a green future.

Oil-patch and Blue Dog Democrats like Gene Green (D-TX) and Jim Matheson (D-UT) yesterday called for subsidies for the oil and nuclear industries to be added to the Waxman-Markey clean energy bill, while criticizing federal renewable energy and energy efficiency standards.

Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) criticized the Environmental Protection Agency for taking initial steps to obey a Supreme Court mandate to regulate global warming pollution, saying, “if alphabet agencies can do what they want without regard to what Congress believes, there’s something wrong with the system.”