Reid’s Energy Bill Letter: The Case of the Missing Word

[Mass]

http://washingtonindependent.com/86353/reids-energy-bill-letter-the-case-of-the-missing-word

Reid’s Energy Bill Letter: The Case of the Missing Word

By ELANA SCHOR 6/4/10 10:30 AM
When Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) asked major committee chairmen yesterday to offer “recommendations or report legislation” on clean energy before July 4, with an eye to considering a post-oil spill bill later that month, several news outlets interpreted the letter as boosting momentum for a climate change bill.

But as Center for American Progress blogger Joe Romm quickly pointed out, there was one big word missing from Reid’s letter to the chairmen: “climate.” The Senate letter includes no indication that the energy measure under consideration would include a nationwide cap on greenhouse gas emissions or a price on carbon, which President Obama directly called for in his Pittsburgh speech on Wednesday.

Of course, Reid’s omission of any reference to a full-scale emissions cap could have been inadvertent. What makes the absence of the C-word from the Senate letter a potentially ominous sign for environmental groups?

The fact that several senior Senate Democrats, including Energy Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) and Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), have pushed all year for a smaller, “energy-only” bill that would include a renewable electricity standard and other clean-fuel incentives — but not the greenhouse gas limits that were present in the House-passed climate plan.

...

If the spill ends up giving Democrats cover to aim for an energy bill that can overcome a GOP filibuster this summer, leaving strict emissions limits on the cutting-room floor, fierce pushback from environmental groups would likely ensue. But those green advocates might want to start by asking why the word “climate” never made it into yesterday’s letter.

[ProSense]

1. Madness.

"renewable electricity standard and other clean-fuel incentives"

Bingaman is big on electricity. Other, Dorgan? Yeah, let's hype coal.

[karynnj]

2. People who care about the environment need to push Reid to go with

some variation of Kerry's bill. One reason this is tough is that many in the environmental community hoped for more - as John kerry himself likely did. Kerry spoke of how all three Senators had pieces of the bill that put them out of their comfort zone. That shows that real compromises were struck.

One question I have is why is Dorgan being given so much visability on this. He is not one of the chairs of a relevant committee.The only committee he chairs is the Democratic Policy Committee. He is not senior enough to chair a major committee and he opted out of running again.

It is critical that they not pass an energy only bill. It would give away all the things that Kerry or anyone else willing to try could include to gain votes. We need to put pressure on all Democrats who are not willing to deal with climate change.