Climate-Energy Bill Seems Poised to Move

by Emily Gertz

categories: Clean Energy, Fossil Energy, Greenhouse Gas, Jobs & Economy, Policy & Legislation

Published June 04, 2009 @ 08:26AM PT

The Waxman-Markey clean energy-and-climate action bill, which was voted out of the House Energy and Commerce Committee on May 21, may have gotten some wind under its wings.

Although the bill seemed destined to become mired in eight other House committees with some say over its provisions, yesterday Environment & Energy Daily ($ req'd) reporter Darren Samuelsohn reported that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi gave the committtee chairs a June 19 deadline to move the legislation:

Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) and Education and Labor Chairman George Miller (D-Calif.) both confirmed that Pelosi wants them to act within the next 15 days on the comprehensive measure.

"We're under the hammer," Rangel told reporters following an hourlong meeting in the Capitol with more than two dozen of his Democratic committee members.

Pelosi yesterday told reporters that she had not set a schedule for the committee leaders. "I'm not putting any deadline on it," she said. "It'll go to the floor when we are ready. They will pass bills out of their committees when they are ready."

But Rangel, Miller and other Democrats said that the speaker has indeed established a very small window for any changes to the 946-page bill (H.R. 2454) ...

..."I think the speaker's trip to China made her a little more interested in moving it," said Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.). "So we'll hear a little bit more talk about it. Maybe some shifting away from health care for a moment."

On Tuesday, a report emerged that President Barack Obama "is prepared to stake his own political prestige on getting climate change legislation through Congress, and would be willing to intervene directly to ensure passage of America's first law to reduce the carbon emissions that cause global warming."

This according to Suzanne Goldenberg, a US reporter for the UK's Guardian newspaper, who interviewed Nancy Sutley, chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality:

The house energy committee, which is weighed heavily towards coal and oil state Democrats, was the first major obstacle for the climate change bill, and Obama drew on his political capital help get it passed.

The president invited key members of Congress to the White House to make a personal appeal for the bill. Those at the meeting say the pitch was crucial to securing the support of wavering Democrats.

Obama would be ready to take further gambles on his personal popularity, Sutley said.

She said he was unlikely to intervene in the near future to shore up targets for emission reductions - already criticised by some environmentalists as failing to go as far as dictated by the science to prevent a catastrophic rise in temperature. However, the president may feel compelled to step in to shield consumers from higher electricity bills. "He has talked about the idea that we have to think about consumers," she said.

Of all the House players, both articles identify the House Agriculture Committee and its chair Collin Peterson (D-Minn.), as a key figure in the bill's fate. Mr. Peterson met for 45 minutes with Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) yesterday, according to E&E Daily,

...to run through his issues with the legislation, which include oversight of the offset market, free emission allowances for rural electric cooperatives and the definition of biomass in a renewable fuel standard.

"We're not trying to stop this bill," Peterson told reporters. "We're trying to make it so we believe it's workable. That's where we're coming from. We're going to have a bill, something from the standpoint of agriculture, that's going to work. That makes sense. That's what we're trying to accomplish here."

As a bookend, this article from last Saturday's Washington Post details how, during the presidential campaign, Barack Obama brought himself up to speed on the intersections of national security, energy, climate change, and the economy.

In early July 2008, oil prices were approaching their all-time high, and the Republican presidential candidate, Senator John McCain, was settling on offshore oil drilling as a primary solution to spiking energy costs. (It's not.)

Then-candidate Obama met in Chicago with round table of experts from all quarters -- "including top executives from three utilities and two oil companies, the chief energy economist of an investment bank, a climate scientist, a California energy and environment expert, an oil consultant-historian, and several campaign staffers," report Steven Mufson and Juliet Eilperin:

While Obama had held a similar session early in his Senate career, the Chicago meeting marked a turning point in his thinking. He knew there was a moral case for addressing the nation's dependence on fossil fuels, but this time, he realized he could make a political and economic case for it. And top advisers say internal polling showed that with gasoline prices at more than $4 a gallon, the American public was open to an energy platform based on economic competitiveness and national security.

...Now, four months into his presidency, Obama has elevated energy and climate issues to near the top of his agenda; he's made them pop by packaging them as ways to create "green" jobs and reduce U.S. dependence on imports of foreign oil. Favoring pragmatism over moral suasion, the president is attempting to make a sharp shift in national policy on an issue that many voters have yet to embrace as a priority, advisers and lawmakers say.

While the president has at times appeared willing to put climate action in a backwater in the current session of Congress in favor of health care reform, sources tell the Post team that his largely hands-off strategy is on target:

Duke Energy chief executive James E. Rogers, who promoted free allowances for local electricity firms, said Obama understands the need to protect key industries, states and consumers, and he praised energy and climate czar Carol M. Browner for marshalling congressional support without dictating terms," write the Post team.

Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va.) said that the president "is trusting us to work these things out internally, and he's not putting down markers."

"This is in keeping with how we have worked with Congress on a number of key issues," a senior administration official said, citing the stimulus and budget bills. "If the president draws a bright line and says, 'I have to have this,' the proposal is dead on arrival."

On May 5, as House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) was trying to cement support for the cap-and-trade bill, Obama invited 35 lawmakers to the White House. He said that it was a difficult issue but that dealing with difficult issues was the reason they were there. As the lawmakers were getting ready to leave, Obama said, "We have to do something more than symbolic here."

"It was a personal appeal," said Rep. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.), who attended the meeting. "He's demonstrated . . . he's willing to put it on the line to get a bill done. You don't do heavy lifting like this without having a president who's willing to put it on the line."

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Image: "President Barack Obama and Energy and Environment Cabinet Secretaries stand with their hands on chairs before meeting in the Cabinet Room 2/23/09. Official White House Photo by Pete Souza"