Reid: Next climate bill should be ‘piecemeal’

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Tuesday that attempts to tackle climate legislation in the next Congress should start with a “piecemeal” approach focused on electric power plants rather than a more sweeping proposal.

“I think we are looking to a time when we can get part of this done. We can’t get everything done at once,” Reid said.

Reid acknowledged it’s a “cinch” that climate legislation won’t move this year. But he praised negotiations among some senators in recent months on plans to cap carbon from utilities.

“We have got to be able to suck it up and say I may not get all I want,” Reid said, speaking at a "clean energy" conference he co-hosted at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. “We are not going to be able, as much as people want, to have a price on all carbon.”

“But why don’t we step back. We had a really good thing going,” Reid added. “The utilities are really interested in doing this because they want the certainty.”

The House approved a sweeping climate and energy bill in the summer of 2009 that would have imposed emissions limits across many sectors of the economy.

But even a scaled-back approach failed to gain traction in the Senate, and Reid dropped climate legislation before the August recess, citing a lack of 60 votes.

Reid said Tuesday that he remains hopeful the Senate will complete work this year on a narrow energy bill that includes provisions to boost deployment of natural gas-powered trucks and rebates for home energy efficiency retrofits, dubbed “Homestar.”

“Homestar is a program that is so simple and yet so meaningful,” Reid said, claiming it would create 250,000 jobs and save on home energy costs.

Reid acknowledged that would be far less than the broader energy measures the House has approved, but noted it is easier to advance bills in the House, where only a simple majority is needed. “The House is also going to have to get real,” Reid said of the need to accept narrower plans.

While noting that natural gas and home retrofit plans should be able to gain traction, Reid also reiterated that a renewable electricity standard is also in play. Such a plan — which faces a number of hurdles — would require utilities to supply escalating amounts of power from sources like wind, solar and geothermal energy.

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