Offshore drilling still in climate bill, but with restrictions

The word is out about the contents of the Kerry-Lieberman climate bill, due for release at a 1:30 p.m. (EDT) news conference Wednesday. The Hill has links to a summary of the new draft on its Web site.

Offshore drilling is still in it but there are protections:
• If a state wants to drill within 75 feet of shore, nearby states that could be impacted by a spill can veto it.
• Safety regulations will be added later, pending the 30-day review by the Interior Department.

What's in the bill
Other key elements of the bill, the American Power Act, include:
• Cutting greenhouse gas emissions 17% (below 2005 levels) by 2020 and more than 80% by 2050.
• Pre-emption of states or regions having their own carbon market, but allowing them to restrict GHG.
• Pre-emption of EPA regulation over GHG from new plants but not over existing plants.
• $54 billion in loan guarantees for nuclear energy
• A price on carbon, with a floor of $12 a ton, to rise 3% a year and a ceiling of $25, to rise 5% a year.
• 37.5% revenue-sharing for states that allow drilling off their shores.
• Two-thirds of utility auction revenue (after paying down the deficit) returned to customers to help pay rising utility costs, referred to by some as cap-and-dividend.
• $7B a year for transportation infrastructure and efficiency.
• Investment in electric vehicles and tax incentives to switch heavy vehicles to natural gas.
• Expansion of the clean energy tax credit by $5B.
• Fuel producers and importers will pay a price for allowances, which they will not be able to trade.
• $2B for coal plants that capture and store carbon.

What happens next
After release, the bill is expected to go to Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who will merge it with some other pieces to craft a bill he thinks can get 60 votes. The Energy Committee bill, which passes committee last year, will be one of those pieces. It included a renewable electricity standard of 15%, efficiency measures and an overhaul of federal financing for clean energy projects. It also included allowances for wider oil and gas leasing in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, which isn’t likely to fly.

Progressives are hoping the bill will move in their direction as it is changed, to woo those on the left opposed to more offshore drilling.

Debate is expected in June or July.

(Sources: The Hill, Climate Progress , Sierra Club, the Washington Post Carbon blog, Greenwire)

Will immigration (Nevada) politics get in way of climate bill?

(Photo of immigration rally in Chicago from Flickr and ProgressIL)

Rising pressure from Latinos to pass immigration reform is clearly on Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) mind and those of others Senators running for re-election in states with a high Hispanic populations, such as Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), who are at risk of losing to Republicans and badly need Latino votes.

U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) last week raised the prospect of Latinos staying home on Election Day next November if a vote on reform, promised by President Obama during the campaign, doesn’t come this year.

So there’s a real chance, as Latino leaders get increasingly vocal, that Democratic leadership may put immigration ahead of climate on the Senate floor, if it looks more likely to get bi-partisan support.

Meanwhile, Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) continue to try to please all of the people all of the time (or at least 60). They are scheduled to introduce their comprehensive climate bill on Monday, but first have to figure out what to do about transportation. They had planned on a gas tax, but the president and others said that was a non-starter, so it’s off the table.

Moderates are suggesting it would be better to follow Sen. Byron Dorgan’s (D-N.D.) proposal to go ahead with the clean energy part now and put off trying to put a price on carbon. But climate bill advocates say no, that if they can’t link the more popular clean-energy incentives to a price on carbon to reduce emissions, the latter is never going to happen.

Meanwhile Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) have their own proposal out there for a cap-and-dividend plan that would return revenue to residents to help pay increased energy bills.

(Sources: Wall Street Journal, The Hill’s E2 Wire , The Washington Post, PlanetArk, E&E Daily)

Enviro groups praise Kerry-Lieberman-Graham; but energy standard may include non-renewables

(Photo of nuclear plant from Flickr and photographers iluvcocacola/Bill and Vicki Tracey)


Twenty environmental groups praised the Kerry-Lieberman-Graham Senate climate bill Friday, despite the fact that it is business-friendly.

Meanwhile issues like a renewable energy standard, offshore-drilling revenue sharing, free permits for power plants, and pre-emption of EPA and states’ programs are still being discussed and resolved by the bill’s three authors.

Saying they are “encouraged by the progress” of the bill, which curbs emissions by 17% in 2020 and 80% in 2050, were the Alliance for Climate Protection, Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council, Environment America, League of Conservation Voters, Environmental Defense Fund, National Wildlife Federation, Blue Green Alliance, Center for American Progress Action fund, Union of Concerned Scientists, National Tribal Environmental Council, Environment Northeast, National Audubon Society, Interfaith Power and Light, Conservation International, Defenders of Wildlife, Clean Water Action, Wilderness Society, Climate Solutions and Environmental Law and Policy Center.

In an effort to avoid industry’s heavy lobbying against the bill and draw bi-partisan support, the authors made major concessions on domestic oil and gas drilling, help for nuclear power, and support for “clean coal.” It has been positioned as a jobs and anti-pollution bill that reduces dependence on foreign oil.

Unresolved issues
With plans to show the bill to other Senators as early as tomorrow, the trio has been working to finalize several matters.

One involves state revenue sharing of offshore oil royalties. To give an incentive for state approval, which is needed to drill off their coastlines – even in federal waters – there is a proposal to give states 25% of what the federal government stands to gain. Another 10% would go in a Land and Water Conservation Fund. It remains to be seen if the west coast of Florida, the only area off-limits to offshore drilling, will have a change of status.

Another issue still unresolved is whether a renewable energy standard will be morphed into a “clean energy” standard, to include one or more of the following: nuclear power, which is greenhouse-gas-free but not renewable (big problem); natural gas (which has about half the emissions of coal); and coal plants that use carbon capture and storage. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-N.C.) has floated a plan with a higher standard than last year’s Energy Committee bill (20% in 2020, rather than 15%), but it is a clean – not renewable – energy standard. Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) clearly favors adding nuclear.

It also appears that power plants, the first to be affected by the bill, would get free pollution permits to start, in what now may be back to a cap-and-trade, or at least cap-and-dividend, system. And they would be able to use offsets, to protect forests and land here and abroad, to meet their quota. Power plants emit about 40% of all GHG.

Finally, the bill has a controversial section that takes aim at the EPA and states, pre-empting EPA regulation of GHG emissions and of hydraulic fracturing used to get natural gas out of shale. It will also override states’ and regions’ cap-and-trade plans. Some from states that are out front on climate change object, saying every level of government needs to be involved in the fight against climate change.

For those wanting to read more on the work-in-progress, a post on Grist and Wonk Room compares the current draft with Obama’s proposal and the Waxman-Markey bill passed by the House last summer.

Also, scroll down to see Earthling Angst posts over the past couple of weeks as this bill was fine-tuned after meetings with all sides.

(Sources: Reuters, E&E Daily, E&ENewsPM, grist.org)