New climate bill would pre-empt EPA and states; authors meet with industry opposition

(Photo of Texas oil rig from Flickr and photographer K. Sawyer)

The Kerry-Lieberman-Graham climate bill would pre-empt EPA regulation of greenhouse gases, as well as state climate laws.

Those are a couple of the details that leaked out of a meeting yesterday with major industry opponents of past climate legislation.

Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) met with the Alliance for Energy and Economic Growth behind closed doors, to share details of their work-in-progress. They did so in an effort to head off multi-million-dollar ad campaigns against their bill by the American Petroleum Institute, U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other members of the Alliance.

Other details of the bill emerging from the meeting:

• Greenhouse gas curbs across multiple sectors would aim at a 17% reduction by 2020 and 80% by mid-century. These are from a base of 2005 levels, not 1990, which Europeans and other Kyoto signers use as their base. (FYI -- U.S. emissions in 2008 were 13.6% higher than 1990.)
• The curbs would apply to plants emitting 25,000 or more tons of GHG a year.
• A “price collar” would limit a rise in the cost of carbon allowances.
• There would be new nationwide standards for energy efficiency and renewable energy.
• The bill would include titles, or sections, on oil refining, farms, consumer refunds, clean energy innovation, coal, natural gas, nuclear energy, and energy independence.

The trio also met with environmental groups to get their feedback.

It’s more than a little disturbing that the industries that worked with the Bush-Cheney Administration on the oil-friendly Energy Policy Act of 2005 got a special introduction to this proposal and chance to make comments and requests. (The oil companies asked that revenue from permits go to highway construction – gotta keep those automobiles running!) More likely it will flow back to consumers to pay higher energy costs and also to clean energy R&D.

The landscape is different today and industry realizes things are going to change one way or another. The EPA now has power to regulate carbon, and states are increasingly passing their own climate bills.

The three Senators expect to reveal an outline of their bill to a larger group of Senators next Tuesday, then send the information to the EPA and Congressional Budget Office for analysis. A final proposal will likely be introduced to the Senate in mid-April, Kerry said.

Meanwhile, Sens. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) and Byron Dorgan (R-N.D.) have pitched Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on an energy-only bill that had bi-partisan support in the Senate Energy Committee last spring. The two might be blended together.

See earlier Earthling Angst posts on that bill and the ongoing effort by Kerry-Lieberman-Graham .

(Sources: E&E Daily, E&E News PM, Greenwire, climateprogress.org)