Today, May 12, 2010, Senators John Kerry (MA) and Joseph Lieberman (CT) introduced their much-discussed compromise climate change bill, the American Power Act. Noticeably absent from the bill's unveiling, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham (SC), who withdrew from negotiations on the legislation after Majority Leader Harry Reid indicated the Senate may consider immigration reform before climate change.Current speculation is that bill passage this year may be a long shot, and it appears as though Majority Leader Reid wants Kerry and Lieberman to have the sixty votes needed for passage in hand before the legislation comes to the Senate floor.
Timothy Gardner reports for Reuters that it may take a push from the White House to get to magic number sixty. The White House has promised to work to pass the bill, but will the administration fight as hard for this legislation as health care?
Gardner writes that without help from the administration the chances for the bill's passage this year are slim. Particularly when you consider it is an election year, financial reform still needs to be finished, and a Supreme Court confirmation battle is brewing. And there is immigration reform looming on the horizon.
As Juliet Eilperin reports for the Washington Post online, the bill differs from the House-passed climate bill. The legislation does aim to reduce carbon emissions by 17 percent from 2005 levels by the year 2020, but the bill does not impose a nationwide carbon cap, but instead "seeks carbon reductions from separate sectors of the economy[.]" The legislation also provides incentives for expansion in nuclear power and offshore oil drilling. Still, some like Senator Graham believe the bill has no shot of passage, in part because of the current oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico.
While the bill does allow for offshore oil drilling to continue, the legislation gives states "the right to veto offshore oil drilling in a neighboring state and opt out of drilling that would occur in waters withing 75 miles of their own shores[,]" reports Eilperin. Additionally, the bill orders the Department of Interior to conduct a study "to determine which states could be economically and environmentally affected by a spill and those states would be able to block drilling by passing a law[,]" Eilperin writes.
While much of what is in the bill has been known for sometime, reviews of the American Power Act are still coming in from various stakeholders. Eilperin reports that both BP and Shell have put out statements praising the legislation. General Electric has "voiced support for the measure[,]" but business trade associations like the US Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers have chosen to remain neutral so far. The position these two organizations take will have a major impact on whether GOP senators endorse the bill, or if the bill will get the sixty votes that will almost surely be needed to pass.
Meanwhile, left-leaning environmental groups are criticizing the bill as being too weak. Ultimately it comes down to the Senators sitting on the fence. Ben Geman writes in the Hill newspaper's environment and energy blog E2 Wire that Senator Kerry believes "multiple Republicans are interested in the climate and energy bill[.]" Kerry may need every senator he can get as some Democrats may oppose the bill.
To read the Gardner article in Reuters online, click here.
To read the Eilperin article in the Washington Post online, click here.
To read Andrew C. Revkin's analysis of the legislation in the New York Times online blog Dot Earth, click here.
To read Ben Geman's post on the E2 Wire Blog, click here.
Posted: 05/12/10
