Browner is happy about Lindsey Graham’s phone call

White House climate czar Carol Browner said a phone call she got a couple months back spelled good things for the push to enact limits on U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.
 
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) called her two months ago and said “I am going to be there on this,” Browner told an American Council on Renewable Energy conference Friday in Washington.
 
Graham is now a central player in the Senate climate fight. He is pushing a plan with Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joe Lieberman that would marry emissions caps with wider offshore oil drilling and expanded federal financing of new nuclear power plants.
 

“I think we are beginning to see the outlines of what a bipartisan bill might look like,” she said. It was the second time this week that Browner has publicly praised the Kerry-Graham-Lieberman partnership, which could be a signal the White House will back compromises that give environmentalists heartache.
 
She also hailed renewable energy industry efforts to take advantage of incentives in the recent stimulus law, calling the rush of applications – which outstrip the money available – a barometer the sector.
 
Applications for a new tax credit for manufacturing renewable energy equipment have far outstripped the $2.3 billion cap. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) is pushing to add another $2.5 billion for the program.