by Joan McCarterThe Washington Independent is reporting that Reid's announced that he has a rough draft of an energy bill that could be introduced in a couple of week. He outlined the four components of the bill.
- Oil spill
- Clean energy job creation
- A title to “reduce consumption” — no further explanation
- A “broader” title, which he’s working on with the Finance Committee, and which will address the utilities sector. No details on whether it’ll include a cap on emissions, but he said it would deal with “pollution.”
It's good to have a job creation element in something pending before Congress, which of course Republicans will say we can't afford, and will use that as another excuse to oppose the bill. While the remainder is too vague to speculate on too wildly, there are a couple of drafts of utility-only bills floating around. Bingaman has a utilities-only approach that would include a cap, according to Politico.
A 50-page draft bill and a shorter 10-page summary obtained by POLITICO suggest that the New Mexico Democrat would cap carbon dioxide emissions from electric utilities at 17 percent by 2020 and 42 percent by 2030, compared with their 2005 levels.
The Bingaman legislation focuses on power plants, which produce about one-third of the nation’s annual emissions, but also includes provisions allowing energy-intensive manufacturers to sign up after 2011 if they want to gain regulatory certainty on climate change rather than face the prospect of new Environmental Protection Agency rules. On transportation, Bingaman proposed new fuel-economy standards after existing rules expire in 2016.
Bingaman spokesman Bill Wicker confirmed the authenticity of the documents, which are dated from around April. He also insisted that the legislation was updated based on conversations with a range of industry and environmental stakeholders....
Wicker added that Bingaman “still has no immediate plans to introduce a sector-specific bill.”
Another draft in circulation is the Kerry-Lieberman utility-only legisation.
Speaking to reporters on Monday, Kerry offered a broad outline of the bill that sounds similar to the Bingaman draft.
“If it’s done properly there’s no reason not to, particularly if you have options for other entities somewhere down the road,” Kerry said. “We could work out some formula that could work for industry that has some purely voluntary components.”
....
Kerry and Lieberman staffers met last week with White House aides and the Edison Electric Institute, the leading trade group for investor-owned utilities. Another round of meetings is on the agenda Tuesday, with environmental groups and members of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, including its chief executive officer, former Oklahoma Democratic Rep. Glenn English, scheduled to attend. The NRECA complained about the House-passed climate bill, arguing that the measure treated its members unfairly and did not address concerns about higher electricity rates.
Bingaman’s legislation tries to address many industry complaints on the program’s costs, starting with a price collar that dictates the low and high prices for an emission allowance.
While Senate Democrats try to come up with an approach that at least partially addresses the climate side of this bill, Olympia Snowe is there to throw cold water on it, even before details emerge, saying “That’s still an open question as to whether or not you can even accomplish [a utility-only bill] and achieve the kind of consensus necessary.”
continued at Daily Kos....
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