Kerry open to ‘scaled back’ carbon plan

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) said Tuesday he is in discussions with other lawmakers about scaling back the reach of climate change legislation, but insisted that some type of greenhouse gas provisions are vital to any energy package.

Kerry and Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) are struggling for political traction as they promote a sweeping climate and energy plan they unveiled last month.

“If we are going to get serious, we have to price carbon. There are many different ways of doing that. I am not locked in to one single way of doing it,” Kerry said on MSNBC.

“And I am working with a number of colleagues now, Republicans and Democrats alike, to look at alternative ways that we might be able to scale back, provide a smaller chunk. ... What is important is that we begin the process, actually begin the pricing of carbon and send a signal to the marketplace,” he said.

Kerry’s bill includes a cap-and-trade program for power plants and eventually large factories and some other industrial facilities. The bill's emissions cap also covers motor fuels, but it contains measures to shield fuel producers from swings in the carbon market.

Kerry’s comments come ahead of a White House meeting Wednesday between President Barack Obama and a bipartisan group of senators, including Kerry, to discuss energy. 

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said Friday that an emissions cap applied only to electric utilities would be welcomed as a topic for discussion.

Kerry and other advocates of emissions curbs hope to keep them in the mix as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) works to bring energy legislation to the floor as soon as next month.

“If we don’t price carbon, we will create one tenth of the jobs and we will reduce one tenth of the emissions,” Kerry said.