Voting on The Energy Bill:
CLIMATE: Subcommittee votes line up for Lieberman-Warner (10/30/2007)
Darren Samuelsohn, E&ENews PM senior reporter
A Senate subcommittee appears headed toward approving a global warming bill Thursday that would curb heat-trapping emissions across much of the U.S. economy, several members of the Environment and Public Works Committee said today.
"I believe it's going to get out of subcommittee," Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) told reporters after acknowledging he was close to signing off on the bill, S. 2191, "America's Climate Security Act."
Lautenberg insisted he wanted to make the legislation more aggressive on several fronts, but he also explained that he didn't want to block Democrats from advancing the issue. "I don't want to be described as a holdout," he said. "We're talking. And it's substantial conversations without being confrontational and that's the way I want to keep it."
Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) had encouraged Lautenberg to accept the climate bill despite his reservations, he said. "She wants to move it, and I agree with her," he said. "I want to get it to the full committee and get it out to the floor."
Lautenberg represents a key swing vote on the seven-member Senate EPW subcommittee on global warming. Cosponsors Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) and John Warner (R-Va.), as well as Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), are already committed to the legislation.
The other majority member on the subcommittee -- Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) -- rallied against the Lieberman-Warner bill today in both a prepared statement and in comments to reporters.
Citing a Friends of the Earth analysis of the bill, Sanders criticized provisions that dedicate $324 billion of auction revenue toward the coal industry for carbon capture and sequestration, plus another $232 billion to automakers.
Sanders said he would work over the coming days to send auction proceeds elsewhere. "We're going to try to target some of the revenues to sustainable energy, to energy efficiency and we are going to make the bill stronger in terms of what the scientific community wants," he said.
Asked if his concerns were strong enough that he would vote against the Lieberman-Warner bill in subcommittee, Sanders replied, "Obviously we're going to try to make the bill as strong as we possibly can, and then we'll see what happens."
Where Republicans stand
Among Republicans, Warner said he had spoken to Lautenberg twice already today on the climate issue, but he wasn't ready to comment on his progress. "I've been around a very long time and know it's best to stay quiet until I get the vote count," he said.
The committee's ranking member, James Inhofe (R-Okla.), said he expected Lautenberg and Sanders to help the Democrats to pass a climate bill out of the subcommittee and the full committee. "I have assumed and still believe there are enough votes to get it out of the committee," he said. "I cannot imagine there are not. The floor is where we do battle."
Told of Sanders' concerns with the bill, Inhofe added, "If there's anything I can do to encourage him to hold out, to push it to the left, I just assume he do that."
Of the two Republicans on the subcommittee, Sen. Johnny Isakson (Ga.), repeated his call to use the legislation for the promotion of nuclear power. "This is our one best chance to partner nuclear back to being an effective part of our entire energy generation issue, and I'd like to see that happen," he said.
Isakson said he would likely miss the subcommittee markup to attend a White House meeting on the Southeastern drought scheduled at the same time with the governors of Alabama, Florida and Georgia.
"There's only one thing more important to me than that markup, and that's my state running out of water," he said. Isakson added that amendments on nuclear power -- which deal with loan guarantees and waste disposal -- would come at the EPW Committee markup.
Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), the other climate subcommittee member, also is weighing amendments but his office has not provided any specifics.
Looking ahead
Looking past this week's subcommittee meeting, Boxer plans to hold two hearings and two staff-led briefings in the full committee. A markup has not been scheduled, but Democratic and Republican aides say they expect the full committee to address the legislation before Boxer leaves in early December for the United Nations climate negotiations in Bali, Indonesia.
Also today, Jim Manley, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said a Senate floor debate on the Lieberman-Warner bill would have to wait until 2008. "It's definitely not going to be this year," he said. "The best I can do is say early next year."
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