An E&E News PM roundtable discussion with E&E Daily reporters Darren Samuelsohn and Alex Kaplun considered the likely course of energy and climate legislation in 2010. Samuelsohn said abandoning a climate bill to focus on energy was "one of the fallbacks that you're hearing talked about right now," but he expected the Obama administration to continue seeking approval of a cap-and-trade program. Samuelsohn added that a few Democratic senators were unlikely to back the climate bill, so the administration will need to strategize about how to "bring along a good number of Republicans" on the bill.
Kaplun noted that worries about the economy and the November elections meant many senators may have doubts about voting for the bill "three or four months before a really competitive election." Samuelsohn said a vote to block EPA from regulating GHG emissions would be "a huge, early test for the whole climate agenda." However, both reporters expected Democrats to continue touting the job-creation benefits of a climate bill. Kaplun predicted of President Obama: "It's going to be very telling what he does with climate change for the next couple of months." He added that if Obama fails to make an aggressive case for the bill, "that's going to give a lot of cue to Senate Democrats in particular to say, hey, this is not a big priority for the president. Maybe we should hold off."
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