Senate Watch: Baucus, Chambliss, Graham, Gregg, Harkin, Murkowski, Nelson, Rockefeller, Specter
Senators lay out their agenda after the Environment and Public Works Committee reported out the Kerry-Boxer Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act.
Max Baucus (D-MT)E&E News That frees up the Senate, frankly. It frees up all members of the Senate who are interested in climate change, including those on the committee.
I don’t want to say we’re going to do something totally different. I’m respectful of the House allocation.
We have to be sensitive to our own industries, as other countries are sensitive to theirs. I strongly believe that an open trading system benefits all countries. It’d be unwise to retrench.
Saxby Chambliss (R-GA)On his idea for triggers for stronger targets That’s something we can work out. Climate change is going to be with us, legislative efforts are going to be with us for a while. It’s not going to happen tomorrow. Plenty of time to work on this.
Lindsey Graham (R-SC)Wall Street Journal The actions the EPA has taken and its plans to regulate greenhouse gases are a serious concern. However, EPA’s actions should not scare Congress into passing bad legislation.
Politico Now, it’s time to find a bill that will make good policy. Clearly, there are not 60 votes for that product.
Judd Gregg (R-NH)E&E News I appreciate the committee’s work. Now it’s time to find a bill that can make good policy. Environmental policy needs to be good business policy. If it’s not, there will never be 60 votes.
Tom Harkin (D-IA)Politico It’s hard to vote on a bill that big without knowing what it’s going to do. I don’t think that bill is viable in its present form, because we don’t know what it does.
E&E News on the 50-50 split of allocations to utilities based on retail sales and historic emissions It’s going to be changed. It can’t stay at 50-50. It won’t. It can’t.
E&E News I think it has left clearly a very bitter taste in many members’ mouths about how we’re part of a process on a very important issue. This may stall things out for a period of time.
Politico It dooms that particular legislation. The question is what comes next. We will see what Plan B is.
Ben Nelson (D-NE)E&E News We’ve been talking a lot about starting over with a blank piece of paper. I think this might allow for that. If that’s the case, that’s a positive.
Jay Rockefeller (D-WV)Politico I don’t know that I’m playing a key role, but we’re talking. I think that’s important.
Arlen Specter (D-PA)E&E News What they have to understand is that the Senate is not ready to travel at their rate. And that the balance on this is among people like myself who come from coal state and manufacturing states who can’t just sort of meet the Copenhagen deadline. We’ve got to be satisfied that it’s a good bill and I’m not at this point.
Politico I think the bill could have been improved substantially.