EPA chief warns of lost benefits with fragmented climate bill

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said Monday that moving away from a broad “economy-wide” climate bill could hinder private sector investment in low-carbon technologies.

A trio of senators hoping to salvage climate legislation are mulling a plan that breaks with the sweeping cap-and-trade bill the House approved last year.

Instead the senators – John Kerry (D-Mass.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) – are considering a more fragmented plan that could impose a cap-and-trade system on electric utilities only, at least initially.

But Jackson criticized the idea of a fragmented bill, albeit carefully. “One of the advantages that the President points out often is that if you really want to unlock private sector investment, the more economy-wide you are, the more you can find these win-win opportunities,” Jackson told reporters after a speech at the National Press Club.

“And so certainly we would look at any legislation that is put forward, but right now the President has talked about economy-wide legislation,” she added.

However, Jackson also said during her remarks that some progress could be made absent an economy-wide approach. And more broadly, the administration has also indicated that it is open to several compromises to help advance a climate and energy package, which faces big hurdles this year. Obama administration officials have praised the Kerry-Graham-Lieberman effort to negotiate a compromise several times.

Jackson said she’s working with the senators. “We are actively helping them as they try and formulate their thoughts on how to take concepts into legislation,” Jackson said. The senators have yet to float a bill.