President Obama will talk energy with a bipartisan group of roughly a dozen governors at the White House Wednesday. The governors planning to attend hail from states with a range of energy interests, including Ohio, Vermont, Montana, Tennessee, West Virginia and South Dakota.

And what will Obama say? There’s a range of views circulating about Obama’s comment in New Hampshire Tuesday that the Senate might divide energy and cap-and-trade legislation. Cap-and-trade faces big Senate hurdles, and splitting it off from more popular energy proposals would probaby sink it.

Here’s our story about Obama’s remark that separate bills may be “where the Senate ends up.” The remark came during rather lengthy comments on energy in response to a question at a town hall meeting in New Hampshire.

President Obama said Tuesday "it's conceivable" a stand-alone energy bill could be approved by the Senate without a cap-and-trade plan to limit greenhouse gas emissions.

Obama's remarks at a town hall meeting in New Hampshire mark the first time the White House has acknowledged that the controversial emissions plan, which faces heavy Senate resistance, could be de-linked from other energy provisions.



The House in June approved a sweeping bill that combined cap-and-trade with a suite of energy measures, and the White House has consistently advocated for that approach.



In his State of the Union address last week, Obama called for a “comprehensive” energy and climate bill, and a White House official last month said the administration isn’t backing away from a combined energy and cap-and-trade plan.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) backs President Obama’s proposal to cut oil industry tax incentives worth an estimated $36.5 billion over a decade, a spokesman for Reid said Tuesday.

“Reid supports the White House's effort to repeal oil industry tax breaks, especially since those tax breaks do little to create jobs and rapidly develop clean and renewable domestic fuels production to make us more secure,” spokesman Jim Manley said in an email exchange.

But Manley declined to say whether Reid will seek to repeal the tax breaks in energy legislation this year, citing the Finance Committee’s jurisdiction over tax policy.

Obama’s fiscal year 2011 budget proposal would end several incentives, such as write-offs for certain drilling expenses and the industry’s ability to claim a lucrative tax break for domestic manufacturing.

President Obama said Tuesday that energy legislation could be broken off from a cap-and-trade plan to limit greenhouse gas emissions, according to Reuters.

The comments mark the first time the White House has acknowledged that the controversial emissions plan, which faces heavy Senate resistance, could be de-linked from other energy provisions.

"The most controversial aspects of the energy debate that we've been having: the House passed an energy bill and people complained that, 'Well, there's this cap-and-trade thing,'" Obama said at a town hall meeting in Nashua, New Hampshire.

Climate change legislation being written by a Senate climate trio includes additional loan guarantees, tax breaks and a streamlined regulatory approval process to boost the nuclear energy industry.

A draft of the title, obtained by E2 Wire from an energy lobbyist, shows Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) are contemplating a series of incentives for nuclear power.

The language is the first to emerge from the behind-the-scenes talks the three have led in hopes of striking an accord on climate change to attract centrists.

A spokesman for Kerry said the language was not current but declined to say how it had changed. The draft title reflects themes that Kerry, Lieberman and Graham have already laid out.

After a shout-out in the State of the Union Address, nuclear energy companies are hoping to keep political momentum going with a seven-month long advertising campaign that stresses the economic potential of an industry revival.

The Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), the nuclear industry’s main trade group in Washington, said six advertisements would appear in The Hill and other newspapers to educate policymakers about nukes.

NEI spokesman Scott Peterson declined to say how much the campaign would cost, or even if it represented an increase in its annual ad budget. But one difference is it will be more targeted at Washington lawmakers than previous campaigns have been. In addition to the print ads, NEI is buying radio advertising on WTOP and Web-based ads in Politico.

President Barack Obama called for more support for nuclear power in his SOTU, and then followed that up by asking Congress to add another $36 billion in loan guarantees to help the industry reboot in his recent budget proposal.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told a Senate panel Tuesday that a White House proposal to repeal roughly $39 billion in oil, natural gas and coal industry tax breaks will not raise consumer energy costs.

“We don’t think they are going to have any effect on prices. We don’t think they will,” he said at a Senate Finance Committee hearing on the White House fiscal year 2011 budget plan. “They have been carefully designed not to do that.”

Geithner spoke in response to allegations about the proposal by GOP Sen. Mike Enzi of Wyoming, a state that’s home to substantial natural gas and coal production.

Last year Congress swatted aside President Obama’s bid to repeal over $30 billion worth of oil industry tax breaks.

Obama’s fiscal year 2011 budget plan unveiled Monday tries again. Will this year be any different?

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) stayed mum on the idea yesterday in his nearly 600-word reaction to the White House budget, and an aide simply said he’s reviewing the proposal.

Lobby “fly-in” days happen all the time in Washington. But one sponsored by Clean Energy Works and We Can Lead seems worth a mention.

Right about now, business executives from 18 20 states are beginning to congregate at a Grand Hyatt ballroom in preparation for two days of lobbying in support of climate and clean energy legislation. One source said more than 200 execs were expected.

Before heading to the Hill, the executives will hear from some Washington dignitaries, including two Cabinet secretaries. First up is former Rep. James Walsh, a New York Republican who was on the House Appropriations Committee. Walsh, now a lobbyist at K&L Gates, will brief the group on how to lobby Congress.