Over on our main page, I have a story about the tough road ahead for the Senate climate and energy bill.

* BP, federal officials express new optimism on Gulf spill

As a House subcommittee examined possible causes to the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, BP engineers said they were nearing a solution to shut off the leak.

From the New York Times this morning: "Engineers and scientists at BP’s command center in Houston had drafted plans to work on and around an underwater blowout preventer, a massive safety device that is designed to seal an oil well in an emergency but failed to do so after the explosion at the rig on April 20."

Officials worried tinkering with the device could make the leak worse, because the blowout preventer has partly constricted the flow of oil.

But BP spokesman Andrew Gowers expressed new confidence the leak could be shut off at "acceptably low risk."

Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) were flanked by environmentalists, religious and ex-military leaders and energy officials.

Rep. Henry Waxman sought to tie the massive Gulf oil spill with legislation to encourage development of cleaner sources of energy, two issues highlighted on Capitol Hill on Wednesday.

“Our national energy policy is broken and nothing illustrates this better than this massive spill,” Waxman (D-Calif.) said at the start of an Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations subcommittee hearing on the spill. Waxman is chairman of the full committee.

Waxman said one lesson was already clear: “We need an energy policy that emphasizes clean, renewable sources of energy.”

“If we do not have the courage to take on the oil companies and take decisive step to reduce our over-reliance on oil – when the consequences of doing nothing are so clear – we may never start down the path toward a clean energy economy.”

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Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) said there were at least “four significant problems” with the blowout preventer.

Maybe it’s what they didn’t say. Business groups that authors of Senate climate legislation have spent months cultivating did not exactly embrace the product finally released Wednesday. But they didn’t promise to oppose it with all the resources they could muster either.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce thanked Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) for “their work to constructively engage the business community on these issues.” The American Petroleum Institute, which represents large integrated oil companies, said the bill “reflects the complex relationship between the U.S. energy system and greenhouse gas emissions which come from every car, home, factory and farm in America.”

API President and CEO Jack Gerard noted the differences with the House-passed climate legislation. Moving away from that bill “was imperative,” Gerard said.

But API and the Chamber also said they needed more time to study the economic impacts of the legislation, which runs around 1,000 pages.
The Chamber’s lead lobbyist, Bruce Josten, said the Kerry-Lieberman bill “is a work in progress.”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Wednesday praised the new Senate energy and climate bill but said passage this year will require “significant” bipartisan cooperation.

Reid is facing a tough reelection battle, and in a statement on legislation that Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) unveiled made the case that alternative energy development aids Nevada.

“All Americans would benefit from a comprehensive national energy plan that creates millions of clean energy jobs, improves our national security and reduces pollution. Already in Nevada, we have seen how critical investments in solar, geothermal and wind energy, as well as energy efficiency, creates reliable jobs that can never be outsourced and diversifies our state’s economy,” Reid said.

He said he would work with the bill sponsors, committee chairs and the White House to advance the measure, and welcomed ideas from colleagues to strengthen the bill. Reid has said he wants to move energy and climate legislation this year, but has acknowledged the need for Republicans to back the measure.

“To be successful we will need significant bipartisan cooperation, and I am hopeful Republicans will join us in working to further develop this bill so that it has broad support and can pass this year,” Reid said.

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) a leading manufacturing advocate, said Wednesday that the climate bill needs improvements to bolster industrial and consumer interests.

"We must do more to ensure that it promotes the competitiveness of American manufacturers, and provides more assistance to the consumers, industries, and states that would be most affected by the bill," Brown said in a statement. "As energy legislation moves forward in the Senate, I plan on working on these issues and ensuring that Ohio manufacturers can build the clean energy products that can be sold around the world."

Brown's support is seen as key to attracting rust belt Democrats who represent states that lean heavily on traditional industry, signaling they will push for additional aid to energy intensive interests.

The Ohio senator still applauded the release of the legislation, co-written by Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.)

"We need an energy policy that reduces our dependence on foreign oil and addresses the serious threat of climate change," he said. "I applaud Senators Kerry and Lieberman for advancing this issue. Done right, a clean energy bill will also be a jobs bill."

Cross-posted to the Briefing Room

A staunch opponent of offshore drilling said Wednesday he is pleased with the Senate climate bill's language restricting new exploration.

Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) said late last month that a bill with drilling expansions would be a non-starter due to the massive spill caused by a rig in the Gulf of Mexico.

The climate bill, rolled out by Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) Wednesday afternoon, places a moratorium on new drilling until investigators determine the cause of the Deepwater Horizon spill.

"I’m glad the climate bill includes my proposal for a moratorium on any new drilling, until we know what happened aboard the Deepwater Horizon," he said in a statement. "Also, they had their eye on expanding drilling into new areas of the Gulf of Mexico near Florida, and I told them to stay out of it. And I’m glad they listened."

Nelson was positioning himself to be a roadblock against the bill unless it satisfied critics of offshore oil and gas drilling.

Cross-posted to the Briefing Room

(h/t senatus)