Hill Heat

Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.)

E&E News Yeah, it’s complicated, but doable. You have to look at it anew. There are different ways to price carbon from different sectors of the economy.

John Kerry (D-Mass.)

E&E News If we want to get the economy moving, it seems to me, you have to build out an American grid. We have a gaping hole in the middle of our nation, which prohibits investment.

E&E News We’ll be coming out with a bill sometime soon and start engaging in the debate. A lot is happening behind the scenes.

John McCain (R-Ariz.)

E&E News I appreciate anybody’s efforts that’s trying to do anything, but I can’t join in an effort where nuclear power is basically out of the equation. They announce they’re closing Yucca Mountain, and they will not recycle. You can’t get there from here. You can have all the titles you want, but it doesn’t work.

Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.)

E&E News It [the Murkowski amendment] completely obliterates all of EPA’s functions. If it were to pass, I don’t think the president would sign it, an automobile company in Detroit making cars they send all over America, each state would have its own CAFE standards. Not the way to run a country.

It [Rockefeller’s proposal to delay EPA regulation] clears out matters of that sort, and leaves them with the powers they need to have, but concentrates on the emission problems and gives us more time.

Jeff Bingaman (D-NM)

E&E News If enacted today, CEDA can create countless new jobs this year in new companies across the country by helping breakthrough clean energy technologies get introduced into U.S. markets and expanded as quickly as possible. CEDA would facilitate tens of billions of dollars in new investment in entrepreneurial companies with innovative technologies by giving investors the confidence that financing will be available later for first commercial-scale deployment. This is critical in helping emerging clean tech companies grow in an environment that is highly capital intensive, making our economy more competitive, and reducing emissions of greenhouse gases.

Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.)

E&E News This is a new low, in my humble opinion. [The resolution is an] unprecedented move by a United States senator and her co-sponsors to overturn a health finding made by health experts and scientific experts in order to stand with the special interests. We know we’ve got to find 60 votes, but we also know we cannot and must not repeal a scientific health finding.

Ben Cardin (D-Md.)

E&E News There are provisions that are more difficult for us to accept if they’re not part of a comprehensive bill. In a broader package I am more understanding of some of the other regional concerns.

Robert Casey (D-Penn.)

E&E Neews It’s going to be very hard to do something on that [climate] in the next weeks and months. And after that, I can’t tell. But we have to have substantive strategies on job creation.

Bob Corker (R-Tenn.)

E&E News You’re [Secretary Chu] slow-walking things that are proven, and wanting to spend lots of money on things that are unproven. It makes me less trustful of the department.

Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.)

E&E News It [the energy committee bill] will move us in the direction of a lower-carbon future. Offshore drilling is a carrot. It’s a carrot that’s already been consumed.

E&E News My guess is that it probably wouldn’t meet with favor when it hits the White House, if it ever passes the House and the Senate.

Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.)

E&E News I can get every Republican for an energy independence bill, OK? But there are not 60 votes. You’re not going to get the nuclear power provisions you want unless you do something on emission controls.

E&E News I’ve got a lot of Republicans who are really excited about the energy part. What I’m telling them, and what I’m telling y’all, if you want energy independence, the way to get there is through cleaning up the air, and we’ll see what happens.

E&E News If you vote to pre-empt the EPA, which I’m willing to do, I think there’s a burden on you as a U.S. senator to deal with the issue.

John Kerry (D-Mass.)

E&E News It’s [the Murkowski resolution] not going to affect what we’re doing one way or another.

E&E News We certainly had a good discussion on the issue [with the White House]. And I think they’re committed to moving forward, as are we. We’re already working on text,” Kerry said. “We’re putting a bill together. … If you give us just a few days here, we’ll be ready to give you a little update. We feel very good about where we are.

Mary Landrieu (D-La.)

E&E News The industries that I represent want the sharpest, most carefully crafted tools available, and I don’t think that can be achieved using a Clean Air Act that wasn’t designed for that purpose.

Bob Corker (R-Tenn.)

E&E News We’re creating this policy – or at least this bill contemplates creating a policy – that has a lot of human giving away of free allowances. All kinds of things that distort the market, and it just seems that if truly the goal was to lower the amount of carbon there would be a proposal just to tax it and to lower some other tax and be done with it.

James Inhofe (R-Ok.)

Roll Call We need to remind the American public, for example, that the 1,400-page Waxman-Markey monstrosity is a monument to big government that will make food, gasoline and electricity more expensive, increase mandates on small businesses, and increase the size and reach of the federal bureaucracy — all while doing nothing to affect climate change. The Kerry-Boxer legislation introduced Sept. 30 is, in many ways, worse than the Waxman-Markey bill. This reflects the attitude of one of the bill’s sponsors, who said recently that, because of the recession, businesses should be expected to make even more expensive emissions reductions. While it’s never a good time to pass a national energy tax, one would have thought that imposing such a tax during a recession is especially bad. Over the past week, many people have speculated about the potential for a grand Senate climate deal, tying cap-and-trade to the expansion of nuclear power and offshore drilling. Both policies make eminent sense and are key components of the Republican “all-of-the-above” energy policy. But tying those policies to a massive national energy tax makes no sense, which is why there’s little hope for a deal so long as it involves cap-and-trade.

Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska)

Washington Post Count me as one of those who will keep my mind open as we move forward. When you see changes to the land coming about … what is causing the loss of the sea ice that adds to the erosion issues, yes, in Alaska we are seeing change. That’s why I have been one of those Republicans who has stepped out front a little bit more on the issue of climate change.