The Senate trio – John Kerry (D-Mass.), Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) – trying to salvage a big climate change and energy bill this year treated 19 colleagues to a PowerPoint presentation about their upcoming plan Tuesday afternoon.

Kerry later met privately with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). Kerry, who is usually talkative about the climate effort, said rather little after that session but proclaimed Reid backs their effort.

‘He’s very supportive. We have been working with Senator Reid for months now, and he has said he wants to get this done,” Kerry said after talking with Reid in the majority leader’s Capitol office.



Here are a few tidbits from staking out the late afternoon Capitol meeting that Kerry, Graham and Lieberman held for the broader group of senators.

Senior Senate lawmakers are holding plenty of meetings on climate and energy legislation this week, but it remains to be seen whether a big bill will gain a spot on the post-health care agenda this year.

Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) plan to brief a number of colleagues late Tuesday afternoon about the broad climate and energy bill they’re crafting.

And Tuesday evening, Kerry is slated to meet with Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). Then, on Wednesday, Reid plans to host a broader meeting of the chairmen of the various committees of jurisdiction on energy and climate policy.

The chief executive of oil giant BP said Tuesday that Congress needs to find a better way of maintaining jobs than “preserving them in the coal industry.”

Tony Hayward, BP’s chief executive officer since 2007, said in a speech on energy security and climate change at the Peterson Institute for International Economics that it was “somewhat surprising” coal plants were being built in the United States given concerns about climate change.

Hayward said Congress instead should be promoting natural gas, which emits as few as half the carbon emissions that coal does. He said the effort in the Senate to write a new climate legislation appeared to be more equitable to the natural gas industry than the bill the House passed last June. BP has significant natural gas resources, and would likely stand to benefit from climate legislation that encouraged more gas use. Natural gas makes up more than half of BP’s total energy production, according to the company’s Web site.

Lisa Camooso Miller, a spokeswoman for the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, a group that includes coal producers and users, said Hayward’s comments were “no surprise” given the importance of natural gas to BP’s business.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu used a Wall Street Journal op-ed Tuesday to tout the potential of small, modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) that the Energy Department is trying to get off the ground in the U.S.

“Small modular reactors would be less than one-third the size of current plants. They have compact designs and could be made in factories and transported to sites by truck or rail. SMRs would be ready to ‘plug and play’ upon arrival,” he writes.

The op-ed touts provisions in the fiscal year 2011 White House budget request aimed at helping get designs for these small units licensed for commercial use. Modular construction would help reduce the capital costs of bringing new nuclear power generation on-line, and the units would be suitable for electric grids that can't accommodate large nuclear plants, Chu noted.

Two farm state House members are seeking cosponsors for an upcoming bill to extend a major ethanol industry tax break for five years and boost other incentives as well.

Reps. Earl Pomeroy (D-N.D.) and John Shimkus (R-Ill.) are circulating a “dear colleague” letter for a bill that would extend the 45 cents-per-gallon credit until the end of 2015.

The letter cites a Renewable Fuels Association study released last week that concludes allowing the incentive to die would cost 112,000 jobs. The credit boosts the ethanol market by paying refiners and gasoline blenders to mix ethanol into their product.

The Washington Post reports Tuesday on an EPA ranking of energy efficient buildings nationwide. The Washington, D.C. region ranks 2nd in the nation with 204 buildings that have earned the “Energy Star” rating.

The Post’s conclusion? “Perhaps Washington is an efficient place after all.”

The Denver Post reports that Colorado officials have enacted legislation that increases the state’s renewable electricity standard. Colorado now requires utilities to supply 30 percent of their power from wind or other renewables by 2030.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Monday that he remains committed to working on climate and energy legislation in the wake of the contentious health care debate, but warned that the effort now faces a tougher road.

“It is going to make it difficult to do anything complicated and controversial,” he told reporters in the Capitol.

Graham has been highly critical of Democrats’ tactics on health care, claiming that plans to use reconciliation to complete the bill will “poison the well” for subsequent initiatives – including the energy bill he’s crafting with Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.).

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said he plans to meet with Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) Tuesday to discuss energy and climate change legislation.

Kerry is working with Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) on a compromise measure to impose limits on greenhouse gas emissions and boost domestic production of alternative and traditional energy sources.

Some centrist Democrats have been pushing for the Senate to instead take up the energy package that cleared the Energy and Natural Resources Committee last June, and Democratic leaders are keeping that option open.

Twenty-two Senate Democrats are pressing Majority Leader Harry Reid to bring a broad climate bill to the floor.