Kerry, Lieberman circulate climate plan focused on power plants

Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) are circulating a revised climate change plan that adds to the growing list of Democratic proposals focused on limiting greenhouse gas emissions from electric power plants.
 
The two senators had initially pushed a broader carbon-pricing plan that included emission limits on the electricity, manufacturing and transportation sectors, but scaled it back under political and time pressure.
 
The latest 667-page Kerry-Lieberman draft, obtained by The Hill, echoes the emission reduction goals for the utility sector of their earlier bill, aiming for cuts of 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020, 42 percent by 2030 and 83 percent by mid-century.

A 50-page draft utility-only carbon-pricing plan from Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) — written in April and modified since — shares the same 2020 and 2030 emission-reduction goals for the sector.
 
The draft plans are circulating ahead of expected Senate debate on a broader energy package.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Tuesday said debate on the Senate floor would begin as soon as the week of July 26. He indicated that he wants the package to reduce emissions from the utility sector.
 
The latest Kerry-Lieberman draft leaves blank key details on how emissions credits would be allocated annually to businesses under a market-based utility-focused approach.
 
Like their earlier bill, it allows the use of domestic and international offsets to help meet emissions targets, sets up an emissions bank to try to alleviate overall costs to businesses and steers revenues generated from the emissions program back to consumers. 
 
The Kerry-Lieberman draft also aims to make commercially available technology that can capture and store carbon emissions. The technology is seen as vital to keeping coal-fired power plants economically viable in a carbon-limited economy.

They couple this with performance standards for new coal plants that receive permits once this technology is available. Plants that would receive permits by 2020 would have to be able to cut their carbon pollution in half, while those seeking permits after that year would have to cut their pollution by 65 percent.