Three events this week are likely to be the focus of climate change policy in the Congress. First is the likely unveiling of the much negotiated, and long awaited, 2008 Farm Bill. What is known, from a climate and energy perspective, is that this farm bill will have a larger focus on energy and biofuels than previous iterations. The House and the Senate had substantial differences on biorefinery loan guarantees, renewable energy provisions, and incentive payments to bioenergy producers. Once a bill is released, ClimateIntel will publish a rundown of its most pertinent climate change policies.

On Tuesday, at 10:30 AM, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will hold a hearing on “International Deforestation and Climate Change.” Stewart Eizenstat, a former Clinton Administration official and current partner at Covington and Burling will testify. Also testifying will be Kevin Gurney, the associate director of Purdue University’s Climate Change Research Center; and David Hayes, former deputy secretary of the Interior. Deforestation and forest management are a focus of post-Kyoto climate negotiations.

On Thursday, at 10:00 AM, the Senate Finance Committee will hold a hearing examining the tax aspects of an economy wide cap-and-trade system. This will be the first foray into this topic by one of the two tax writing committees, and will help create the revenue blueprint for implementation of any auction of carbon credits. Depending on the level of the cap, the revenue in the initial years of the system could reach into the hundreds of billions of dollars. The witnesses slated to appear are Peter Orzag, the director of the Congressional Budget Office, which published a report in February on “Policy Options for Reducing CO2 Emissions;” Robert Greenstein, executive director of the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities; and Henry Derwent, the president and CEO of the International Emissions Trading Association.

For further information about this topic, please contact Akin Gump.