Kerry, Graham, and Lieberman Plan for a “Happy Earth Day” With a Draft Climate Change Bill
Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.), Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), and Senator Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) (KGL) appear poised to release draft climate change and energy security legislation shortly after the Spring Recess. This schedule places the bill’s release fittingly close to “Earth Day.” In recent days, speculation continues over whether the Obama Administration has exhausted too much political capital during the partisan, often hostile, health care debate to have any hope of pushing through a climate bill. “It’s going to make it very difficult to do anything complicated and controversial,” Graham told reporters yesterday. “I’m still committed to trying to roll out a vision of how you can price carbon and make it business-friendly. We’re still going to do that. … But the truth of the matter is, I think you’re going to find most of our colleagues around here risk averse.” Compound that with the mid-term elections in the Fall and brutal economies in key States and Congressional districts, passage of meaningful remains a long shot.
The KGL draft is likely to be based on a “sectoral approach to fighting climate change,” with eight titles: Refining, America’s Farmers, Consumer Refunds, Clean Energy Innovation, Coal, Natural Gas, Nuclear and Energy Independence. It is expected that the bill will set a 2020 target of reducing emissions by 17 percent below 2005 levels and an 80 percent limit at midcentury, which are consistent with the Obama Administration’s pledges in the international climate negotiations. Some other ideas to be included come from Senators Cantwell and Collins bipartisan bill, the Carbon Limits and Energy for America’s Renewal (CLEAR) Act, which proposes a “cap-and-dividend” approach with carbon emissions restrictions and revenues used to fund consumer rebates. Other provisions to preempt EPA a state climate regulation, to protect against foreign leakage of jobs and trade, and to control prices through “collars” and use of offsets are sure to be included along with measures to promote energy efficiency and renewable electricity.
Now as the final touches are put on the bill, we will wait and see whether KLG brings new ideas to this Earth Day and moves US forward through the political, economic and scientific quagmires of climate regulation.