Good news, not-so-good news on climate/energy news today. The Bingaman "spill bill" reforming leasing practices at the Agency Formerly Known as Big MMesS, S.3516, draft previously analyzed, has passed the Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee on a unanimous vote. However, there's no certain path to transforming that victory into a climate bill. It seems that when the Democrats decided last week to go big by attaching climate legislation to the spill bill, they forgot to agree on a particular climate bill to attach to the spill bill. Whoops.
- Good News on S.3516
The Hill has the whole story: the bill passed unanimously, but with plenty of warnings that the bill needs changes. "The bill is likely one of the centerpieces of a package of legislative responses to the gulf spill that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is planning to bring to the floor in July. The spill-response provisions are intended to be the driver for a broader debate in the full Senate over energy production and carbon pricing proposals that may end up accompanying the spill strategies."
Senators Lisa Murkowski (R-Baked Alaska) and Mary Landrieu (D-Oilpocalypse), two of the showiest Climate Peacocks, voted yes reluctantly even though the "reform" they want most is for their states to share in federal offshore oil lease revenue.
Murkowski issued standard Republican talking points:
Murkowski warned against tying the spill response to broader efforts to combat climate change. Republicans would "protest any attempts to tie these essential elements and actions to other legislative agendas that have proven to have some very bipartisan opposition," Murkowski said.
- Not-So-Good News on Everything Else
Yesterday, President Obama held a much-ballyhooed meeting with 23 Senators that could best be summed up as "meh." Headlines range from Readout of the President's Meeting with a Bipartisan Group of Senators to Discuss Passing Comprehensive Energy and Climate Legislation (White House) to The Latest in Democratic Fecklessness (David Roberts, Grist) to White House Energy Session Changes No Minds (New York Times).
Two possibilities are coalescing from a great deal of conflicting statements. Senator Olympia Snowe (R-President of the United States of Maine) is working quietly on a "utility only" cap on carbon emissions. Marc Ambinder calls this the "go medium" approach. Separately, Senator Jeff Merkley (D-My Hero) indicates support for the Cantwell-Collins CLEAR Act, meaning that it may become the de facto liberal alternative.
- Can we do anything?
Reid and Bingaman know that the netroots favor a bill with a strong carbon cap. We'll have to make sure other Senators hear the same message. More on this later.
Please recommend Gulf Watchers' Mothership