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Talks inch ahead as political sands run on climate change bill
Eleventh-hour talks between big utilities and environmentalists on Senate legislation that curbs carbon emissions from power plants are showing hints of progress, but time is running out to achieve breakthroughs that would keep the struggling plans alive.
Senate debate on wider energy legislation is slated to begin as soon as the week of July 26. “The schedule is not our friend,” acknowledged Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), who is fighting to include climate provisions in a broader energy package.
Groups involved have included Duke Energy, Exelon Corp., the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), Pew Center on Global Climate Change, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the Bipartisan Policy Center.
"They've actually been very constructive," said one official involved. "We've been agreeing on lots of issues." And on those issues that have not been resolved, "there is interest in continuing the discussions," the official said.
Big and thorny issues are on the table.
One is whether to shield power companies from EPA regulation of greenhouse gases and, even more controversially, other pollutants in return for accepting carbon caps. Such “preemption” is a priority for the industry but a bitter pill to swallow for environmentalists.
Another question is how to allocate emissions credits to companies covered under a carbon-pricing program.
“It’s a predictable kind of tug [between] different groups that’s going on right now in the newly configured energy legislative environment. It’s inevitable,” said Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), who has been working with Kerry for months on climate legislation, on Thursday.
But he noted that both sides have a reason to negotiate. For industry, EPA greenhouse gas rules loom if Congress doesn’t create a new climate framework.
Utilities still face the “choice between working out a legislative response that is long term as opposed to allowing themselves to be subjected to EPA regulations beginning in January,” Lieberman said.
For environmental groups “it’s a question of whether we’re going to get something done this year to deal with energy independence, climate change, etc,” he said. “So this is [a] classic legislative moment and it’s OK, we’re working on it.”
Kerry has been involved in meetings with various groups and said there’s more to come. “There will be some more discussions Monday that I think can help us clarify what is possible, what isn’t possible at this point,” he said. “There are some key pieces that are coming together, but it is tricky.”
He said there will be a “bunch” of meetings Monday with “relevant stakeholders and people who are going to make some choices on this.”
Kerry met Thursday morning with officials from the Edison Electric Institute – a powerful trade group that represents for-profit utilities – and said he hopes to meet with them again Monday.
Kerry and Lieberman worked with the two sides when they authored a much more sweeping climate bill months ago. They negotiated several concessions between power companies and environmentalists on issues such as containing costs to businesses and the use of international and domestic emissions offsets.
“So we’ll work this out, too,” Lieberman predicted.
“We’ve agreed on 90 percent of the issues,” one environmentalist said.
But big hurdles remain. While blocking some EPA climate change rules in exchange for emissions caps has long been in play, the industry is now asking for more.
Power company officials are now asking for relief from upcoming EPA restrictions on pollution the agency has long regulated under the Clean Air Act, including ozone, particulate matter and lead.
Environmental groups, for their part, are reluctant to allow any type of preemption or delays in these regulations in return for first-time carbon controls.
Thirty-one groups sent a letter to senators Wednesday to argue against pending proposals to preempt or delay Clean Air Act requirements. “Such provisions are simply unacceptable,” the groups wrote. Signers of the letter include EDF and NRDC.
Kerry on Thursday promised not to “roll back” any Clean Air Act requirements. “If we put those requirements into a different form so that we are still adhering to them, that is a different issue and those are two different choices,” Kerry said. “But there is not going to be a rollback of current requirements.”
Hope remains that the ice will begin to thaw between utilities and environmental groups.
“There are at least some people who think that we are continuing to move forward,” one environmentalist said. “With more time, I’m feeling confident obstacles can be worked out.” Whether there is enough time, this environmentalist adds, remains unclear.
Reid hopes to circulate legislation as soon as next week and begin debate the following week. That may only leave, at best, two weeks to get through a massive and complicated package of items before the August recess.
The overall bill is expected to include several provisions that address drilling safety and other matters related to the BP oil spill, as well as numerous measures to boost “clean” energy sources and curb consumption.
The scope of the measure and the limited time has prompted Lieberman to suggest letting the debate spill over into September, after the recess.
“It’s a big bill,” Lieberman said. “So I’d say it’s certainly enough to have the beginning of a debate and move to a vote on a motion to proceed” before the August break, and then resume the debate when senators return, he said.
