Spill revives moribund energy reform efforts
WASHINGTON – Passing a major energy bill seemed impossible a few weeks ago, but Democrats, bolstered by public anger over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, are pushing for legislation with renewed hope of success.
A new energy bill could be shorn of its most controversial feature – the costly and complex “cap and trade” system, which would set a declining limit on emissions from power plants and factories and force emitters to buy permits for the release of heat-trapping gases.
But even without cap and trade, the measure contemplated by Senate Democratic leaders could bring far-reaching change, including new renewable energy requirements, tougher liability caps on oil companies and stronger energy-efficiency measures.
Last week, the Senate narrowly defeated a Republican-led effort to strip the Environmental Protection Agency of authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions – a vote seen by some as a test of the difficulties Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid could face in delivering yet another Obama administration priority without a filibuster-proof majority of 60 votes.
The vote suggested that while energy and environmental legislation would not be easy to pass, it might be possible.
“The obituary for comprehensive and clean-energy-reform legislation has been written every week,” said Daniel J. Weiss, director of climate strategy at the liberal-leaning Center for American Progress Action Fund. “All of those predictions were wrong.”
The Senate has long been considered the place where such legislation goes to die. That became clear to House Democrats over the last year as their chamber passed a sweeping climate change bill only to see it stall in the Senate.
House Democrats, many in re-election fights in swing districts, came under attack as Republicans deftly labeled the bill a light-switch tax because it could raise the cost of coal and other carbon fuels used to generate electricity. Just eight House Republicans supported the measure.
Hope for Senate action was dashed when the main Republican negotiator, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, said in late April he was pulling back.
But the Gulf spill may have changed the equation.
“I want you to know, the votes may not be there right now, but I intend to find them in the coming months,” President Barack Obama said in an early-June speech in Pittsburgh. “I will work with anyone to get this done – and we will get it done.”
Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., said, “I think it gets tough, but everybody is watching the oil spew from the Gulf. … This is the time for us to be putting together a much more sustainable energy strategy.”