Senate Watch: Graham, Kerry, McCain, Rockefeller 27
John Kerry (D-Mass.)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.
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.
John McCain (R-Ariz.)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.
Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.)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.
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.
Senate Watch: Bennett, Brown, Dorgan, Feinstein, Graham, Gregg, Inhofe, Kerry, Landrieu, Murkowski, Sanders
Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio)E&E News This administration talks a good fight when it comes to wanting to increase our production of oil and gas… But every time they get a chance to back that up with dollars, they don’t.
Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.)Politico We can’t let the Chinese corner the market on wind turbines and solar panels.
Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.)E&E News If you ask somebody who believes fervently in cap and trade and a lower carbon future, ‘What would you specifically do to achieve that?’ they’d talk about the very things we’ve put in this energy bill.
Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.)E&E News I would support it [funding GHG regulation]… There’s no question about greenhouse gas in my mind.
Politico If you take some of the green stuff out, some of the goodies, and put it in the jobs bill, you’re hurting the idea of having an energy package that would attract support.
Mother Jones I’m not going to ask the environmental community to accept a compromise that doesn’t in a serious way deal with our carbon pollution problems… You’ll get some votes for a comprehensive package that you wouldn’t get for stand-alone proposals… If we can make the energy piece attractive enough for Republicans, there’s going to be more than a handful that would agree to emissions controls.
James Inhofe (R-Okla.)E&E News I think cap and trade has a long road here obviously. And there’s a lot of good initiatives on energy policy that are on a shorter track and will hopefully be pursued aggressively… I think it’s more logical to focus on those things we can do in the short term.
John Kerry (D-Mass.)E&E News Until such time as the lawsuits are filed … there may not be anything to do [regulating GHGs]… And so why fund something that doesn’t exist? That, in my opinion, is premature.”
E&E News While today he’s acknowledged that some want to go the path of least resistance, he made equally clear that’s not his administration’s position… It’s accurate that we’re still working on precisely what the carbon pricing mechanism and what shape it will take… It might be a hybrid. It might be one component. There may be some compromise. We have to look at that very closely. We know we have to price carbon, and that’s essential… I think we’ve moved very significantly on the nuclear piece, on the energy title itself, on the alternative renewables, on natural gas, on some of the offset pieces… I think we’re making a lot of progress… I don’t want to start throwing out little nibbles and pieces of one title or another… I don’t think it serves us well. I think we need to treat this as a package. Nothing’s agreed to until we’ve got everything agreed to.
Mary Landrieu (D-La.)Mother Jones We’re not stuck on one idea. We’re looking for a way to come at this that gets the job done, but the job remains the same: addressing the real urgency of climate change… There are any number of ways of skinning this cat.
Politico We can use that bill [the energy committee package] and combine it with parts of the jobs package and really lay out a framework to get America working again… I think energy is the best place we could go right now to create jobs.
Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska)E&E News It is unfortunate that the administration has chosen to escalate the cost of producing energy in Americ. Raising the costs of domestically produced energy only accelerates our dependence on lower-cost foreign oil.
Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)Politico I’m always hesitant to use a good bill to carry things that are added baggage… If the jobs bill is added baggage, you’re not going to find me so supportive of it.
E&E News He [Obama] has not funded [renewables] to that degree… Construction of new nuclear power may well be the most expensive way to go.
WonkLine: February 2, 2010
From the Wonk Room.
“Strong earnings from Exxon Mobil and bullish comments from coal analysts boosted the energy sector Monday” as climate negotiators say a global deal on climate change in 2010 is “all but impossible.”
“At a time when our country is struggling with a deep economic recession, the last thing I want the EPA to do is start regulating greenhouse gases without specific direction from Congress,” Rep. Earl Pomeroy (D-ND) said about the EPA budget plan that allocates $56 million for global warming regulation.
Indiana officials will not require insurance companies to complete a nationally approved climate risk survey, because it seems to advance a “politically driven agenda,” said Doug Webber, the state’s acting insurance commissioner.
Senate Watch, 2011 Budget: Bennett, Feinstein, Graham, Inhofe, Kerry, Landrieu, Lieberman, Lincoln, Lugar, Sanders, Voinovich
Senators respond to the president’s budget, which does not assume any revenues from a cap-and-trade system, and allocates $56 million to the EPA for the implementation of greenhouse gas regulations.
Bob Bennett (R-Utah)Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.)E&E News This administration talks a good fight when it comes to wanting to increase our production of oil and gas. But every time they get a chance to back that up with dollars, they don’t.
Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.)E&E News I would support it [budget proposal for EPA greenhouse gas regulation]. There’s no question about greenhouse gas in my mind.
James Inhofe (R-Okla.)Politico We know the moving parts and getting the coalitions put together is what we’re working on. I’m pretty optimistic, quite frankly.
John Kerry (D-Mass.)E&E News Until such time as the lawsuits are filed … there may not be anything to do [to regulate greenhouse gases]. And so why fund something that doesn’t exist? That, in my opinion, is premature.
Mary Landrieu (D-La.)E&E News The White House is taking the right approach in calling for deficit-neutral legislation to reduce carbon emissions in the 2011 budget. As we continue to finalize legislation, it makes sense to avoid making revenue assumptions other than to specify that pollution reduction revenues should be used for climate-related purposes.
E&E News It is unfortunate that the administration has chosen to escalate the cost of producing energy in America. Raising the costs of domestically produced energy only accelerates our dependence on lower-cost foreign oil.
Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.)E&E News It was very politically controversial last time. I think it actually didn’t help us. So, I think it was honest budgeting.
Richard Lugar (R-Ind.)E&E News The farm bill is a contract with our farmers that they depend on to make business decisions. Changing the rules in the middle of the game would be detrimental to their operations and would cost us even more jobs in rural America. I thank the president for his recommendations, but Congress writes the budget.
Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)E&E News It reflects the feeling that the odds are not in favor of the cap and trade, so wherever the revenue was supposed to go, it may not be existent. In terms of a sound budget system, the president may have felt, as hearings proceed, someone is going to say, ‘What do you mean by putting $650 billion in there?’ And that would be embarrassing to try to indicate how speculative, or what have you, that would be.
George Voinovich (R-Ohio)E&E News He has not funded [renewables] to that degree. Construction of new nuclear power may well be the most expensive way to go.
E&E News It’s a candid admission of what some folks thought was reality is not reality. Rather than count on revenue [from cap-and-trade] that’s hypothetical, he’s handling it a different way.
Senate Watch: Alexander, Barrasso, Bingaman, Carper, Kerry, Murkowski
John Barrasso (R-Wyo.)E&E News I think to base a budget upon the passage of an economy wide cap and trade this year would be a very risky bet. It’s hard for me to imagine economy wide cap and trade passing the Senate in 2010.
Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.)E&E News Clearly, the sentiment of the Senate is that’s [cap-and-trade] not going to be something that’s going to pass.
Tom Carper (D-Del.)E&E News That’s [cap and trade] a less reliable source of revenue than they might have thought it was a year ago.”
John Kerry (D-Mass.)E&E News The best thing about reducing energy use is that it’s not just good for the environment—it saves money, too.
Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska)E&E News See, what happened last time was it [cap-and-trade] went into the federal Treasury and it was unaccounted for… That set off a lot of alarm bells with people. That’s not what it’s meant to be, and that’s not what’s going to happen… I’m not ruling anything out, but I’m not suggesting anyone has ever talked about that right now… It’s not been a conversation and nobody has made that suggestion, and we hope we’re going to get 60 votes for this or more.
E&E News This [the administration’s loan guarantee pledge] is a good first step toward expanding our use of clean nuclear energy. The next step for the administration is to ensure that these loan guarantees are actually awarded in a timely manner.