Senate Watch: Bayh, Bingaman, Cardin, Dorgan, Feinstein, Graham, Kerry, Landrieu, Lieberman, Lugar, McCain, Murkowski, Nelson, Snowe, Udall, Voinovich, Webb
Jeff Bingaman (D-NM)E&E News You ask, is there a way? The answer is, I don’t know. But at a time of economic anxiety, it will be more difficult. Without the global cooperation from China, India and elsewhere, it just makes it that much harder.
E&E News I want to see us pass what we’ve been able to report out of committee. If we’re able to pass more, that’s great too.
Ben Cardin (D-Md.)E&E News I don’t think there’s any discussion of putting that [a renewable energy standard] into a jobs package as such. What they’re trying to do with this jobs package is identify things that will create jobs in 2010. And it’s harder to make the case this will create jobs in 2010. It’s very good policy, something I strongly support, but I think we may have to do it as part of an energy bill.
Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.)E&E News There’s going to be some significant compromises that are going to have to be made if we’re going to get an energy bill done. We knew it two weeks ago. We knew it last week. We know it this week. This is nothing new. We knew we’d not be able to get a major energy bill done without some significant change. My expectation, if we succeed, there’ll be strong support for what we do from the environmental community. Will it be universal? I doubt it. But if we’re going to be able to get a bill done, there are compromises that are going to have to be made, and some groups are not going to be happy about it. Our goal is to make sure we reduce greenhouse gas emissions. There’s different ways you can accomplish that.
Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.)E&E News Well, I hope we have significant investment for that type of funding [clean energy], but we will have to wait and see [what happens under a spending freeze].
Lindsey Graham (R-SC)E&E News I don’t think anybody has given up on cap and trade. I think big, comprehensive bills are very difficult to do in this environment, regardless of what it is. I tend to be an incrementalist. I say do what you can do, when you can do it. Because everything is opportunity and timing. If you have both, you can get it done. If you have only one, it’s very difficult to get it done.
John Kerry (D-Mass.)E&E News I think you’ve got to price carbon. You can have a hybrid system of emission controls and taxes.
E&E News We’re just going to keep everything on the table and not putting out a framework at this point. Some people have mentioned different sectoral approaches, we’re looking at that. We’re looking at everything. What we want to do is make sure that we get the job done. And we’re not wedded to any one way of trying to do that, so we’re looking at options.
E&E News There’s automatically going to be some small component in terms of the green jobs piece of this. That’s good. That’s fine. But I think the larger pieces require a more comprehensive approach to energy.
E&E News If it [Senate jobs bill] were to reach too far, it could have an impact, but I don’t think it is. And I think that’s been taken into consideration. I think it’s not a sufficiently broad enough piece that it has the ability to satisfy what needs to be done on the full energy front. There’s an immediate reaction to an election, but the reality is this issue isn’t going away. We have to deal with energy independence. We have to create jobs. We have to reduce pollution. That’s what we’re talking about. And there’s a point of reckoning at some point. ... I hope it’s going to be in the next months. And if it’s not, it will happen. Because it’s inevitable, at some point, we have to deal with this.
Asked if he was backing away from the climate bill’s prospects this year No, no, no, no, I’m just trying to be, I don’t want to promise anything. But it’s on the schedule for this year, and we’re on target.
Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.)E&E News I am for a legislative solution, not a rulemaking, not an unaccountable rulemaking process. I’m for an accountable legislative process to achieve that, and I’d be open to some modification of cap and trade that really recognizes the importance of the refining industry here. Because we’re going to have a supply shortage of oil and refined products. We need to do it all. We need to be producing more and particularly more natural gas. I think there’s a way forward, but it’s most certainly going to be bipartisan, and it’s most certainly going to be from the center out.
Richard Lugar (R-Ind.)E&E News My approach here is we really must do something this year. The two problems of American energy dependence and global warming will only get worse. We’ve just got to do the most we can. I’m not being rigid or ideological about it. So anybody who wants to try to make the problem better, it’s worth considering. . . . You ask about the power sector, to do that alone wouldn’t be my first choice, but if it’s all we can do in the end, I’d consider it, sure. . . . We assume we have Collins and Snowe.
John McCain (R-Ariz.)E&E News [A utility-only cap does] Not necessarily [have a better chance of passing], and I’ve not really advocated that. I hypothetically talked about a lot of things, as I’m sure he has.
Lisa Murkwoski (R-Alaska)E&E News waiting for Obama to invite him to talk energy He hasn’t for the past year, but you can always hope.
E&E News I’m always hesitant to use a good bill for something with added baggage. We passed a good energy bill out of committee, a bipartisan energy bill, months and months ago. Nobody paid any attention to it. It just didn’t exist. And now, all of a sudden, they need something.
E&E News We’re going to look to the situation on the ground if we’re in the midst of just pulling something out of the air in regulatory reform—I’m not inclined to just interrupt the legislative process just to interrupt the legislative process. I think we will be looking for the appropriate time.
bq.”We do believe we’ll have Snowe and Collins’ votes; we just don’t have their co-sponsorship,” Murkowski spokesman Dillon said.
Ben Nelson (D-Neb.)E&E News I’d hope energy policy would still be alive and well. I’d hope it can have strong, bipartisan support, at least that’s what I’m hoping. . . . I want to see what the legislation does. I said I can support cap. I have trouble with cap and trade, the trade part of it. So if it’s cap and trade, watered down, and it’s only the trade watered down, that won’t satisfy me.
Olympia Snowe (R-Maine)E&E News I think there are an awful lot of my colleagues that are not anti the EPA, and I’m not anti the EPA; what I am against is the EPA thinking they’re in a position to look over Congress’ shoulder and deciding whether we’re moving fast enough for them. That isn’t the relationship under the Constitution.
Mark Udall (D-Colo.)E&E News Climate change is a key issue. But right now, there are so many factors affecting business’ ability to create jobs or preserve jobs that we have to factor that into the equation. That’s all I’m saying. I’m not dismissing, because I’ve been a leader on that effort in the past, but I also think we have to recognize what can we do and what’s the art of the possible.
George Voinovich (R-Ohio)E&E News Government should live by the same budgeting rules that hardworking Colorado families follow every day.
E&E News Voinovich said his staff are working on an analysis of limiting emissions just on power plants. Once finished, he said he would meet with Kerry “and just see if there’s any area where something can be done.”
Jim Webb (D-Va.)My initial feeling … is that we ought to look at the energy bill, which is pretty bipartisan, and look at that in terms of how it could be enhanced to achieve some real reductions in emissions.
E&E News I’m very skeptical of cap-and-trade as a concept.
Senate Watch: Bingaman, Boxer, Cardin, Casey, Corker, Dorgan, Graham, Kerry, Landrieu, Lincoln, Murkowski, Nelson, Reid, Sanders, Snowe 1
Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.)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.
Ben Cardin (D-Md.)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.
Robert Casey (D-Penn.)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.
Bob Corker (R-Tenn.)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.
Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.)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.
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.
Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.)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.
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.
John Kerry (D-Mass.)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.
E&E News It’s [the Murkowski resolution] not going to affect what we’re doing one way or another.
Mary Landrieu (D-La.)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.
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.
Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska)E&E News I am very concerned about the burden that EPA regulation of carbon emissions could put on our economy and have questions about the actual benefit EPA regulations would have on the environment. Heavy-handed EPA regulation, as well as the current cap-and-trade bills in Congress, will cost us jobs and put us at an even greater competitive disadvantage to China, India and others.
E&E News The decision to offer this resolution was brought about by what will happen in the wake of the EPA’s decision to issue the endangerment finding,. You see, it is not merely a ‘finding.’ It’s actually a floodgate, and under the guise of protecting the environment, it’s set to unleash a wave of damaging new regulations that will wash over and further submerge our struggling economy.
Ben Nelson (D-Neb.)E&E News Murkowski was unclear on the timing of a floor vote but said she would hold out hope on reaching a broader agreement on energy and climate change. “At this point in time, yes, that is what our plan is,” she said. “But I think we also need to be nimble. Things change around here. If there should be something groundbreaking that comes about with a proposal out there, I’m not going to foreclose the discussions.” She was optimistic that she would be able to get the support needed to clear the Senate. “I do believe we will have the 51 votes,” she said, but “I don’t have a cheat sheet today that says 51 votes.”
Harry Reid (D-Nev.)E&E News I think it’s a situation where the legislative branch needs to tell an alphabet agency that we don’t need them looking over our shoulder, critiquing whether we’re moving quickly enough for them.
Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)E&E News Regan Lachapelle, a spokeswoman for Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), also pushed back at the Murkowski amendment, including the prospect it would undercut the EPA’s auto regulations. She put the onus on Republicans for not being more open to agreement on a broader climate bill. “There is no disagreement that it would be better for Congress to pass bipartisan comprehensive clean energy and climate legislation that creates jobs, protects consumers, improves our energy security, and invests heavily in making our economy and businesses more efficient and globally competitive, than for EPA to move forward with command and control regulation of global warming pollution,” she said. “Unfortunately, thus far, very few Republicans have shown any willingness to work with us on that more constructive solution.”
Olympia Snowe (R-Maine)E&E News This country has put more money into nuclear fuel than any other fuel. I’d like to see volunteers, maybe Kentucky or Tennessee would volunteer, for places to store all that [nuclear] waste. I usually don’t see a lot of hands going up.
E&E News That’s [EPA regulation] a very serious step, frankly. I’ve expressed concerns, deep concerns, about that approach, absolutely.
Lincoln Cosponsors Murkowski Effort To Block Greenhouse Gas Regulation
Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) announced today she is co-sponsoring Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s (R-Alaska) resolution of disapproval to block regulation of greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act, in a statement entitled Lincoln Signs on to Resolution Blocking Heavy-Handed EPA Regulation>
Washington – U.S. Senator Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, issued the following statement today announcing her support for legislation to block efforts by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. Lincoln agreed to cosponsor a resolution of disapproval to be introduced by Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska.“I am very concerned about the burden that EPA regulation of carbon emissions could put on our economy and have questions about the actual benefit EPA regulations would have on the environment. Heavy-handed EPA regulation, as well as the current cap and trade bills in Congress, will cost us jobs and put us at an even greater competitive disadvantage to China, India and others.
“We can make immediate gains to reduce carbon emissions by sending the President bipartisan clean energy legislation produced by the Senate Energy Committee. This legislation, coupled with energy tax incentives, will reduce our dependence on foreign oil and incentivize renewable energy, all while improving the environment and creating much-needed jobs.
“We must focus on cutting the deficit, creating jobs and getting the economy back on track. Arkansans, and the American public, want Congress to take a breath, slow down, and thoughtfully come up with energy policy that makes common sense and will help grow our economy.”