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Politics : American Presidential Politics and foreign affairs -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jim S who wrote (36500)	8/24/2009 1:12:27 PM
From: Peter Dierks	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71588

If democrats lose a high percentage of the elderly vote they will be done for in fair elections.

To: Jim S who wrote (36500)	9/29/2009 3:38:03 PM
From: Peter Dierks	Respond to of 71588

Senate to Unveil Climate-Bill Blueprint Wednesday SEPTEMBER 29, 2009, 1:40 P.M. ET. By IAN TALLEY WASHINGTON -- Senate lawmakers Wednesday plan to unveil a blueprint for climate taxation legislation that will mirror the House-passed bill in structure, but leave out many of the most important details. According to industry and government officials close to the matter, the legislation will outline a tougher near-term target for cutting greenhouse-gas emissions but won't include how valuable pollution credits will be distributed among affected industries. That leaves most of the political battles for climate legislation--a cornerstone policy for the Obama administration--to be hashed out in the weeks ahead, a situation exacerbated by lawmakers' current focus on health-care restructuring. Although administration officials have said President Barack Obama is prepared to lean his full weight into a push to get a climate bill signed into law, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) has indicated floor consideration of a climate bill may be pushed into the new year. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D., Calif.), chairwoman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, and Sen. John Kerry (D., Mass.), chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, aim for their 700-800 page draft to jump-start negotiations. Ms. Boxer is using the landmark legislation passed by the House in June as a template for her own bill, but has strengthened the 2020 emissions target. Instead of a 17% reduction of gases from 2005 levels by 2020, she will be seeking a 20% reduction. Given the tightening of cap, lawmakers are considering pushing out the first compliance year to 2013 from 2012. The U.S. House of Representatives in late June approved for the first time legislation that mandates lower emissions tied to global warming. The bill creates a market to buy and sell "carbon credits"--the right to emit these greenhouse gases into the atmosphere--as the cap on emissions falls year by year. In the initial years, most of those permits would be given away free, but a portion would be auctioned off to help offset expected higher energy costs for low-to-moderate-income households. Most of the political fights in the House were over the distribution of those credits, valued at tens of billions of dollars a year. Cognizant that a bill that can be approved by at least 60 of the Senate's 100 votes must navigate a compromise between disparate interests, the Boxer-Kerry proposal is expected to leave out the division of permits. Sen. Max Baucus (D., Mont.), chairman of the Finance Committee, has said his panel will work on international trade and permit allocations once it has finished working on health care. "The draft will be a starting point for negotiations, and the final bill will bear the mark of many Senators," said Tony Kreindler, a spokesman for the Environmental Defense Fund, a Washington-based advocacy group. Another major change to the House bill will be the inclusion of a "price collar," setting a floor and a ceiling on the price of permits. The collar, one of several provisions designed to contain costs, would both give investors a certain price signal to encourage low-emissions energy technology and protect the economy from unexpected spikes in emission credit costs. Mr. Reid will also marry a bill passed out of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee that mandates renewable energy and efficiency across the country. In bids to gain support from moderates within the Democratic party and potential Republican votes, the Boxer-Kerry draft is also expected to sketch out nuclear and "clean coal" provisions. While the nuclear title will largely be a place-holder for later negotiations, the clean-coal section will give carbon capture and storage at coal-fired power plants valuable credits to encourage the development of the new technology. According to a draft document viewed by Dow Jones Newswires, under one proposal being considered, companies could be rewarded up to $96 a ton of carbon dioxide stored in the initial years. Unlike the House bill, the draft preserves the authority of the Environmental Protection Agency to use the Clean Air Act to regulate greenhouse gases. Many lawmakers fear the act is too blunt of a regulatory tool; the administration's drafting of new emission regulations has leveraged action on Capitol Hill. Ms. Boxer plans to introduce a revised bill in mid-October, hold hearings the following week, and have her committee mark the bill up by the end of the month. Write to Ian Talley at ian.talley@dowjones.com online.wsj.com