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After White House meeting, Obama encourages carbon emissions price

Momentum for a cap-and-trade plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions seems to have changed with the seasons since the U.S. House approved its version of the plan shortly before Independence Day 2009.

Different Senate versions of a climate/energy bill were cussed and discussed through the fall, and interest seemed to cool this past winter before picking back up again this spring, as lawmakers grapple with the Gulf coast oil spill.

It appears summer may offer another heated round of cap-and-trade debates, even as Congress enters the final months leading up to this fall’s midterm elections.

A couple of senators emerged from a White House meeting this week with hopes of a final push for “carbon pricing,” which transportation insiders say would lead to increased diesel prices. Several other senators remained steadfast in their opposition to pricing carbon.

President Obama met Tuesday with several Republican and Democratic senators on the issue of a climate and energy bill.

Cap and trade is a system in which polluters are given emissions limits. If they pollute more than their limit they can buy emission credits from others who pollute less and have more credits than they need.

Immediately following Tuesday’s meeting, Sen. John Kerry, D-MA, and Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-CT, held a news conference in which they touted the president’s support for a bill that would put a price on carbon emissions.

By forcing polluters to pay, Lieberman said, such a law would effectively reduce pollution and “incentivize billions of dollars of private money to come into the market.”

“The president said this is a moment for us to forget partisan politics and aim high – and I couldn’t agree with him more,” Lieberman said. “The higher you aim, the further you get.”

Kerry said the Senate bill that he and Lieberman crafted is already a bill created by compromise – but that he was open to more compromise.

Asked about the prospects of an energy bill that didn’t address cap and trade, Kerry said an “energy-only bill” would produce one-tenth of the 250,000 to 500,000 annual jobs that the Kerry, Lieberman-Graham bill is projected to create, and would reduce emissions by only one-tenth of the estimated decrease in the Kerry-Lieberman bill.

Congress has approved 10 energy bills since Richard Nixon’s presidency, Kerry said, and two such bills in the last four years, but none have worked, he said.

“We are prepared to scale back the reach of our legislation in order to find that place of compromise, because we believe, and I think the president believes, what is important is for America to get started,” Kerry said. “I think we feel very, very strongly that if Republicans will step forward, we can find a place to compromise and put America on a new path of real energy independence, job creation, stronger economy and less pollution.”

Congress Daily reported that Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-AK, offered a different version of events during the White House meeting.

“The president reminded us that the thing Americans are focused on is jobs,” Murkowski said, according to Congress Daily . “That’s the reason that a cap-and-trade proposal, national energy tax will not sell in this country at this time. I think we discussed various proposals that might be salable and might build on the heart of the possible.”

Mike Joyce, OOIDA legislative affairs director, said Tuesday’s meeting seemed to show President Obama was “drawing a line in the sand.”

“The president is breathing life back into the notion of a cap-and-trade program,” Joyce told Land Line . “I think the White House and the Democratic leadership missed a really great opportunity before the midterm elections to create an atmosphere of bipartisanship on energy legislation. The reality is: Republicans and many moderate Democrats have no interest whatsoever in voting for legislation that puts a price on carbon and attacks consumers.”

Joyce said he believes Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-NV, will likely bring energy legislation to the Senate floor in July. By that time, a proposal by Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-NM, to add incentives for renewable energy production and efficiency standards may be the favored approach.

“I think in the end that Sen. Bingaman’s bill will probably be the foundation for whatever legislation the senate proceeds with,” Joyce said. “That proposal is more of the carrot versus the stick approach.”

With November’s midterm elections looming, Joyce said Senate approval of a cap-and-trade measure may prove difficult.

“I don’t think they’re going to find 60 Senators during a midterm election that are going to want to take that vote, let alone return a bill to the House of Representatives and ask House Democrats to vote again on legislation that was not very well received,” Joyce said. “Having said all that, we’ve seen what the president has done in passing health care.”

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