E2 Morning Roundup: Obama’s chunky energy plan makes waves, Rand Paul hits foe on cap-and-trade, why the climate bill died, Tea Party fights state climate law, and more

By Ben Geman - 10/04/10 06:14 AM ET

Energy insider calls Obama’s piecemeal approach the art of the possible

Jason Grumet, who heads the National Commission on Energy Policy, thinks President Obama is onto something with his highly-publicized comment that energy and climate policy should proceed in “chunks” next year.

Obama, in a new Rolling Stone interview, signaled the end of sweeping climate bills like the one that hit a brick wall in the Senate.

“I think you will see, post elections, as often happens with administrations post-mid-term elections, a movement away from these kind of overarching, existential policy efforts towards . . . practical but aggressive options,” Grumet said in an interview broadcast Sunday on Platts Energy Week.

Political common ground on power, vehicles

Grumet sees a chance for action on energy efficiency and vehicle emissions, which the administration is also advancing without Capitol Hill.

But he’s also not ruling out political compromise on bills to require increased renewable power generation and limits on utility carbon emissions (now that an economy-wide cap is in a deep, deep freeze.)

“You do have some broad-based congressional support for significant components of the energy legislation that was moving forward,” he said. “It was just overshadowed by what became a very polarized and toxic debate about the [economy-wide] cap.”

Grumet is president of the Bipartisan Policy Center, a think tank founded by a quartet of former Senate majority leaders including Bob Dole (R) and George Mitchell (D). The center houses the energy policy commission.

Rand Paul, Jack Conway spar on climate change . . .

Kentucky Senate candidates Rand Paul (R) and Jack Conway (D), the state’s attorney general, locked horns over climate on Fox News Sunday, though both are against cap-and-trade.

Paul: “Cap-and-trade, [Conway] has been on both sides of the issue. Kentuckians are not going to tolerate someone who's ambivalent on cap and trade. Cap and trade will be a disaster to our economy.”

Conway: “I'm against cap and trade, too. Always have been. . . . I have said I'm always going to protect coal and I'm always going to protect electricity.”

. . . and mine safety

Conway: “[F]ederal mine safety regulations . . . are written in the blood of coal miners. Rand Paul has said that he wants to take federal mine safety regulation back to the 1930s.”

Paul: “Those are your words.”

Conway later noted that “there's a choice in this election between someone who's going to put Kentucky first and someone who thinks that we don't need any mine safety regulations.”

Pete Rouse well suited to incremental energy approach

The departure of Rahm Emanuel as White House chief of staff will have reverberations in the energy debate.

“The new White House chief of staff, Pete Rouse, is far more steeped than Mr. Emanuel in the culture of the Senate, where comprehensive approaches to some of these issues have fared poorly. White House officials hope Mr. Rouse's expertise will help navigate smaller measures through the chamber,” reports the Wall Street Journal in a piece that notes the “chunks” approach won’t be limited to energy.

Markey sees hope for renewable electricity standard

A bit more from the Journal piece:

"White House officials haven't laid out their plan for moving energy legislation. But Rep. Edward Markey (D., Mass.), an author of the comprehensive climate change and energy bill that passed the House but died in the Senate, offered this scenario: Democrats should be able to muster support for establishing minimum standards for the percentage of renewable energy that utilities must use to generate electricity, he said."

"The administration could push separate bills on electric vehicle incentives and building-efficiency standards it contends could have an affect on climate change. What appears dead for now is the House plan to cap the emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses."

Obama touts stimulus-backed clean energy projects

Obama used his weekly address to continue making the case that boosting renewable energy means adding U.S. jobs.

“For decades, we’ve talked about the importance of ending our dependence on foreign oil and pursuing new kinds of energy, like wind and solar power. But for just as long, progress had been prevented at every turn by the special interests and their allies in Washington,” Obama said in the address broadcast Saturday.

Mining association chief warns of greenhouse gas, worker safety rules

“A leading voice for the mining lobby predicted this weekend that partisan gridlock on Capitol Hill all but ensures that Congress won't pass new miner protections anytime soon,” reports my colleague Mike Lillis in a piece Saturday.

“Instead, said National Mining Association (NMA) CEO Hal Quinn, the industry should be most wary of new regulations flowing from the White House, which is eying a number of reforms affecting the nation's mining companies," the story adds.

In case you missed E2 Wire recently

Here are a few of our posts from Friday and over the weekend:

Republican urges Obama to crack down on Cuban drilling plan

Salazar receives drilling ban report, launches new revenue agency

Montana Gov. Schweitzer whacks James Cameron over oil sands criticism

Obama Gulf spill chief Thad Allen to start gig at RAND

Markey seeks quick Capitol Hill appearance by new BP CEO Dudley

Administration may propose raising fuel efficiency standard to 62 mpg by 2025

Graham, Chambliss seek to ensure oil sands access

Tea Party seeks to kill California’s climate change law

“Tea party activists across the state are rallying in support of Proposition 23, a measure on the Nov. 2 ballot that would suspend California's landmark global warming legislation, known as AB 32,” the San Jose Mercury News reports Monday.

How the climate bill collapsed

The New Yorker magazine has a lengthy piece about the rise and fall of climate legislation in the Senate. It chronicles the effort by Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) to craft a compromise plan.

A few takeaways . . .

The White House wasn’t in a vote-whipping mood.

The story notes that Rahm Emanuel “prized victory above all, and he made it clear that, if there weren’t sixty votes to pass the bill in the Senate, the White House would not expend much effort on the matter.”

Later, the piece notes that on climate, Obama “grew timid and gave up, leaving the dysfunctional Senate to figure out the issue on its own.” The bill never came up for a vote.

Kerry’s GOP targets: In addition to Graham (who eventually bailed on the effort) Kerry in April believed the triumvirate could corral four other GOP members to offset defections among centrist Democrats: Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe, Scott Brown, and George LeMieux. The story notes, however, the struggles to bring any of them aboard.

The story is also stuffed with other nice tidbits, such as details on Kerry’s outreach to natural gas advocate T. Boone Pickens, the billionaire oil magnate who backed the infamous Swift Boat campaign that damaged Kerry’s 2004 White House bid; Graham “shouting vulgarities” at Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Reid hanging up on him; and a blow-by-blow description of why and how Graham finally walked away from the bill. Worth a read.

On tap Monday: Top DOE official headlines energy demand event

The American Association for the Advancement of Science holds a panel discussion this evening with speakers including Steve Koonin, who is the Energy Department’s undersecretary for science, and David Goldston, a senior lobbyist with the Natural Resources Defense Council.

UN climate leader sets modest goals for year-end summit

“The U.N. climate chief urged countries Monday to identify achievable goals for fighting climate change ahead of a year-end meeting in Mexico, after last year's Copenhagen summit failed to produce binding limits on greenhouse gas,” the Associated Press reports.

“Christiana Figueres told 3,000 delegates at the opening of a six-day conference in China — the world's biggest carbon emitter — that they must 'accelerate the search for common ground' ahead of December talks in Cancun to make progress toward securing a global climate change treaty."

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