Sens. Kerry and Lieberman appear to be heading toward a climate and energy bill unveiling as soon as next week.

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) suggested Thursday that a long-anticipated Senate climate and energy bill might not be ready for unveiling yet. 



Kerry, who's worked with Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on a compromise bill, was noncommittal on whether it would be rolled out next week.



"We haven't locked it in yet," Kerry told reporters at the Capitol. 

When asked what the timeline was, Kerry said, "As soon as we can." Kerry on Wednesday said the bill would be unveiled "very soon."

Over in our Blog Briefing Room, Michael O’Brien reports that the White House is swinging back at a top House Republican who questioned the administration’s response to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Rep. Nick Rahall, chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, is opening up an investigation into the Gulf oil spill by focusing on whether the system designed to stop oil spills in a catastrophic accident work in deep waters.

A number of congressional committees plan to look into the cause of the oil leak a mile below the surface and how to prevent future accidents. Several aides from the Resources Committee have been sent to the Gulf to monitor the government’s and BP’s response to the spill.

In a letter to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Rahall, a West Virginia Democrat, noted stories in the Wall Street Journal that raise questions about the regulation and operation of “blow-out preventers,” equipment designed to close wells in the result of a catastrophic accident.

Read more...

As we noted Wednesday, several Florida Democrats are pushing for new limits on offshore oil exploration, at least while the federal investigations into the Gulf of Mexico spill are underway.

On the West Coast, there's an effort to go even further.

Several House members from the West Coast want to permanently re-impose the moratoria on offshore drilling there, even though federal plans don’t even contemplate lease sales in Pacific waters. Bans on oil-and-gas leasing along the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts expired in 2008.

From the Congressional Record list of bills introduced Wednesday:

By Mr. GARAMENDI (for himself, Mr. FARR, Ms. WOOLSEY, Mr. SCHRADER, Ms. ZOE LOFGREN of California, Ms. LEE of California, Mr. WU, Mr. THOMPSON of California, Ms. CHU, Mr. FILNER, Mr. DEFAZIO, Mr. BAIRD, Ms. ROYBAL-ALLARD, Mr. SHERMAN, Ms. HARMAN, Mr. DICKS, Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California, Mr. BERMAN, Mr. STARK, and Mr. SCHIFF):

H.R. 5213. A bill to amend the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to permanently prohibit the conduct of offshore drilling on the  Outer Continental Shelf off the coast of California, Oregon, and Washington; to the Committee on Natural Resources.

* Federal and BP planning for oil spills is coming under fire

An Associated Press review of Interior Department and BP records turned this up:

“Petrochemical giant BP didn't file a plan to specifically handle a major oil spill from an uncontrolled blowout at its Deepwater Horizon project because the federal agency that regulates offshore rigs changed its rules two years ago to exempt certain projects in the central Gulf region.”

Interior’s Minerals Management Service, which regulates offshore drilling, “says it issued the rule relief because some of the industrywide mandates weren't practical for all of the exploratory and production projects operating in the Gulf region,” the AP continues.

Here’s more from the story:

Congressional Democrats are pushing their first legislative response to the Gulf Coast oil spill, proposing to vastly raise the cap.

Even as BP faces withering criticism on Capitol Hill, some lawmakers are defending offshore drilling in the wake of the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill, suggesting that efforts to impose new production restrictions on the industry won’t come easily.

House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.) said Wednesday that he may push legislation aimed at preventing future offshore oil spills.

“We need to know exactly what happened before moving forward, but I will not rule out the possibility that remedial legislation may be necessary to ensure that such a disaster is prevented in the future,” he said in a prepared statement on the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

The committee plans to hold two days of hearings (May 26 and May 27) on the spill and the Obama administration’s offshore drilling plans. Rahall’s committee has the main jurisdiction over oil-and-gas development in federal waters.