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Administration officials and utility executives meet to salvage climate bill
Top Obama administration officials met Tuesday with utility executives in another sign that senior Democrats are pushing to salvage a limited climate change bill this year.
The White House meeting comes amid a growing consensus among utility officials involved in the talks that a climate bill is dead for the summer, raising the question of whether it is possible at all this year.
“That was probably the most productive meeting we’ve had all day,” said one utility official who attended the session, which was confirmed by the White House.
One of the utility representatives was quoted as saying at the meeting, “Look, I’ll go buy 10 clean shirts and we’ll stay here to get it done.”
But industry officials also say there is not enough time before the congressional August recess to get a deal on a plan that curbs utility emissions.
“We all left that meeting today saying we’re going to continue to work on these things,” said one utility official regarding the Browner meeting. “But you can’t do these things in 10 days.”
Utility officials have been working with lawmakers for months to craft a legislative fix in the face of upcoming EPA greenhouse gas regulations.
The meetings come ahead of Senate floor debate on energy legislation that could begin as soon as next week.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Tuesday that Senate Democrats will meet Thursday to try and settle on a legislative strategy for moving energy and possibly climate legislation. “We’ll make a decision over the next 48 hours on how to proceed,” spokesman Jim Manley said.
Prior to the meeting with Browner, Energy Secretary Steven Chu and other Energy Department officials gave the utility representatives a “full-on” presentation about carbon capture and sequestration, one utility official said. The commercial development of CCS technology would be key to allow coal-fired power plants to stay economically viable in a carbon-restricted economy.
Utility officials also met with seven or eight senators and two House lawmakers Tuesday on a number of issues, including the utility-only carbon pricing idea, a renewable electricity production mandate, and financial issues associated with an unrelated package of small-business incentives.
The common theme in each of the meetings — which included visits with Sens. Jim Webb (D-Va.), Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) and Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) — was either opposition to any kind of cap-and-trade program or that it is a matter that cannot be resolved quickly, according to officials involved.
Bingaman has drafted a utility-only carbon-pricing plan but has openly questioned whether it would have the votes. His spokesman said Tuesday that talks on the matter have been suspended.
Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) also emerged from a meeting with EEI officials acknowledging that time is running short to reach a deal before the August break for their effort to get a deal on a utility-focused carbon pricing plan.
Several Senate Democrats — including Byron Dorgan (N.D.), Blanche Lincoln (Ark.) and Ben Nelson (N.D.) — are clear cap-and-trade opponents.
There is also the matter of getting a handful of Republicans to support a plan.
Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) on Tuesday said she talked with Kerry on Monday and will keep chatting about the utility-only idea she has espoused. She said it is “highly questionable” that such a plan could be part of a base bill Reid brings to the floor “because it’s hard to build consensus on that,” though she said it could be offered as an amendment.
Lieberman has suggested starting a climate and energy debate on the floor before the summer recess, and then resuming it once senators return in September. But the Senate has a series of spending bills to get through in the fall before the November elections. There is also little precedent for the Senate to do any heavy legislative lifting during a post-election lame-duck session.
A key issue left to be resolved, Kerry said, was trying to “massage” how emission credits are given to electric utilities to better resemble how they were given out in broader draft carbon-pricing legislation he and Lieberman unveiled in May. EEI was a supporter of that draft proposal, which Democratic leaders have scaled back to have a better shot of getting 60 votes this election year.
Kerry and Lieberman also met on Tuesday with Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and staff from seven other Senate offices to discuss a way forward, a Kerry aide said.
Green groups are still holding out hope. “I think the allocation issue can be solved,” said Dan Lashof, deputy climate director at the Natural Resources Defense Council. But he added, “The bottom line for us is the Senate’s got to figure out how to manage its schedule.”
