Graham, U.S. Chamber to meet on climate and energy bill

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said he plans to meet with U.S. Chamber of Commerce officials later on Wednesday to discuss energy and climate change as Graham continues efforts to craft a bipartisan plan.

Graham – who is working with Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) – wants to merge expanded oil and nuclear power production with some kind of limits on greenhouse gas emissions.

He argues that only a mix of energy production and greenhouse gas measures can achieve 60 votes.

Graham told reporters that he plans to reach out to Massachusetts Senator-elect Scott Brown (R), who, like Graham, opposed the sweeping cap-and-trade bill the House approved in June.

But Graham said he hasn’t written off Brown as a potential supporter of the climate and energy effort, which faces a highly uncertain future as Democrats reassess their plans following Brown’s stunning upset win.

“He has proven he wants to be more than the 41st vote against health care,” Graham said, later adding, “If people think that he got elected and the message to us was ‘don’t do anything on pollution or energy independence,’ that’s absurd.”

Graham also said that a more limited cap-and-trade plan covering only the electric utility sector – rather than the “economy-wide” approach the House approved – has some currency on the GOP side of the aisle.

“The sectoral approach, where you do utilities only, that has a lot of Republican support,” he said.

Meanwhile, a top Republican called Brown’s election a de facto voter repudiation of a sweeping cap-and-trade bill.

“The election in Massachusetts was not just about health care. Health care is a proxy for too much spending, too much debt and too much government. That’s a description of the economy-wide cap-and-trade [plan],” said Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), a member of Senate GOP leadership.

“I think it makes it much more likely that we will take specific steps to create clean, low-carbon energy, nuclear power for example,” Alexander said.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), asked about the effect of Brown’s election on efforts to pass a climate change bill, replied “probably not very helpful.”