Two U.S. Senators unveil alternative climate bill

Fri, Dec 11 2009

By Ayesha Rascoe

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two more U.S. Senators jumped into the climate bill debate on Friday, offering a proposal that would cap planet-warming emissions but reduce the role of Wall Street in carbon markets.

Unlike the climate bill passed by the House of Representatives earlier this year, financial speculators would be shut out of carbon markets created under this legislation, introduced by moderate Senators Maria Cantwell, a Democrat, and Susan Collins, a Republican.

Instead of placing carbon limits on most major polluters, the bill would focus only on producers and importers of fossil fuels such as coal mining companies and not power plants and manufacturers.

The companies covered by their legislation would be required to buy permits for their carbon emissions in monthly auctions.

The majority of the revenue from the auctions would be refunded back to consumers to offset higher energy costs, with the remaining 25 percent going to clean energy development.

This market, known as "cap and dividend", would be more streamlined than the House's cap and trade scheme.

This bill "provides businesses and investors with a simple, predictable mechanism that will open the way to clean energy expansion while achieving America's goals of reducing carbon emissions," Cantwell said in statement.

The new legislation further muddles the landscape for climate regulation in the Senate, where lawmakers are trying to reach a consensus to overcome the regional and economic concerns that have stalled action so far.

On Thursday, a bipartisan trio of Senators unveiled their own framework for addressing global warming, which would marry a cap and trade system limiting carbon emissions with incentives for more domestic energy production.

The Senators John Kerry, Lindsey Graham, and Joe Lieberman have been working to win votes from climate fence sitters in both parties. The White House hailed their framework as a "positive development" toward reaching a bipartisan agreement in the Senate.

The three Senators signaled their climate control system would likely follow the same contours of the House-passed bill, which covered most major polluters.

Under the House bill, major emitters such as refiners and utilities would be required to acquire carbon permits. Initially, most permits would be allocated to industries for free with the rest auctioned off.

Critics of the House bill and previous Senate proposals have complained they are too broad in scope and that complex carbon and offset markets would invite manipulation and abuse from financial speculators.

(Editing by Timothy Gardner and Marguerita Choy)

This article brought to you by the Indiana Renewable Energy Association.

Republicans move to delay climate bill progress

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/31/AR2009103101048.html

By Richard Cowan
Reuters
Saturday, October 31, 2009 2:10 PM

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - All seven Republicans on the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee plan to boycott next week's work session on a climate-change bill, an aide said on Saturday, in a move aimed at thwarting Democratic efforts to advance the controversial legislation quickly.

"Republicans will be forced not to show up" at Tuesday's work session, said Matt Dempsey, a spokesman for Republican senators on the environment panel.

Under committee rules, at least two Republicans are needed for Chairwoman Barbara Boxer to hold the work sessions that would give senators an opportunity to amend the controversial legislation and then vote to approve it in the panel, which is controlled by President Barack Obama's fellow Democrats.

But Republicans are demanding more detailed economic analysis of the bill by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency -- a task that could take more than a month -- before agreeing to participate in the work sessions that are called "mark ups."

The seven Republicans have not indicated they ultimately would vote for the bill, which Boxer wants to move through her committee before December's international climate-change summit in Copenhagen.

Even with committee approval of the bill, the full Senate is not expected to vote on it this year. The legislation, as currently written, would have a hard time gaining the support of the 60 senators needed to pass major bills.

Nevertheless, the Obama administration is hoping for more progress by Congress before the Copenhagen summit. In June, the House of Representatives narrowly passed a bill to reduce U.S. emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.

CARBON POLLUTION

Boxer's bill, which she wrote with Democratic Senator John Kerry, would require U.S. manufacturers, utilities and refineries to reduce their carbon pollution output 20 percent by 2020, from 2005 levels. That is slightly more ambitious than the House-passed bill.

Most Republicans and some moderate Democrats in the Senate have criticized the emissions-reduction target of the Kerry-Boxer bill.

Kerry already has begun talking to other senators about significant changes to his bill, including expanding U.S. nuclear power generation.

Republicans on the environment committee say the climate-change bill would cause significant job losses by encouraging manufacturers to relocate more of their plants in countries that do not have as strict carbon controls.

They also say it would significantly boost consumer prices as companies are forced to use more expensive alternative fuels -- a claim that has not been backed up by some independent analysis or by a preliminary EPA analysis.

"Republicans are insisting on a full EPA analysis before a mark up. We are not opposed to a mark up, only on holding one this rushed," said a statement by committee Republicans. Full details of the Democratic bill were unveiled only a week ago.

The senior Republican on the committee, Senator James Inhofe, has been an outspoken opponent of legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, saying there is no sound scientific evidence that the world is suffering due to carbon emissions resulting from human activities.

(Editing by Will Dunham)

This article brought to you by the Indiana Renewable Energy Association.