Senate Watch: Alexander, Barrasso, Bingaman, Carper, Kerry, Murkowski

Wonk Room — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 10:50:00 -0500

Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.)

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.

John Barrasso (R-Wyo.)

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.

Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.)

E&E News That’s [cap and trade] a less reliable source of revenue than they might have thought it was a year ago.”

Tom Carper (D-Del.)

E&E News The best thing about reducing energy use is that it’s not just good for the environment—it saves money, too.

John Kerry (D-Mass.)

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.

Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska)

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.

Hill Heat: Senate Watch: Alexander, Barrasso, Bingaman, Carper, Kerry, Murkowski

Senate Watch: Alexander, Barrasso, Bingaman, Carper, Kerry, Murkowski