Bipartisan trio writing new climate bill

WASHINGTON – Three key senators are writing a new climate bill without a broad “cap-and-trade” approach to reducing carbon pollution, leaving behind what has been the central feature in the debate over climate legislation for years, the Washington Post reported Friday night.

Cap and trade, in which overall pollution reduction targets are met by allowing facilities to buy and sell pollution credits, has become so politically unpopular that its Senate passage is viewed as unlikely.

So Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., are planning an alternative to be introduced next month, the Post reported on its Web site. The bill would apply different carbon controls to different sectors of the economy.

“This is a different bill,” Lieberman told the Post. “We haven’t abandoned the market-based idea, but we’re willing to negotiate with colleagues who have different ideas.”

A cap-and-trade bill passed the House last year in a close vote. It remains President Barack Obama’s preferred approach as he pushes to cut the country’s emissions by 17 percent by 2020 to meet internationally agreed upon goals.

Opponents portray cap-and-trade as an energy tax in disguise and energy companies have been lobbying heavily against it.