Kerry, Lieberman tap corporate execs to push their climate bill

Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), the authors of a bill to combat global warming, met with several high-ranking corporate executives on Thursday to build momentum for their legislation.

Nearly 20 senators attended the meeting with the CEOs of General Electric, Dow Corning and Honeywell International.
 

Sen. Judd Gregg (N.H.) was the only Republican to attend the meeting.
 
George Davis, the chief financial officer of Applied Materials Inc., also attended the meeting.
 
The CEOs argued that capping carbon emissions would create an economic incentive to pursue renewable energy technologies and create green jobs in the United States.
 
“They’ve been very vocal in saying there needs to be a price on carbon,” said Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.). “The audience they need to convince to do something this year is us, Democrats and Republicans.
 
“The best way for them to present their message to us is to do it face to face,” said Carper, who called the meeting "very persuasive.”
 
Democratic Sens. Kent Conrad (N.D.), Patty Murray (Wash.), Tom Udall (N.M.), Jeff Bingaman (N.M.), Debbie Stabenow (Mich.) Mark Begich (Alaska) and Sherrod Brown (Ohio) also attended the meeting.
 
Ben Geman contributed to this report. 

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