State of the Union Speech to Urge Climate Bill Despite Dim Prospects

President Obama was expected to include a call for action on climate change in his Wednesday night State of the Union address despite skepticism about the prospects for passing such legislation in 2010, Greenwire reported. Sen. John F. Kerry, D-Mass., said the Obama administration appeared "committed to moving forward," and he called on Obama to "lay the prestige of the presidency on the line" in advocating for a bill. Kerry asked the president to "remind Congress that he's invested" in the issue, and to use the address "to underscore that climate and energy reform is a priority for 2010, as specifically as possible."

Democratic sources said administration advisers were promoting health care over energy and climate because of doubts about whether Congress was willing to pass a climate bill. Bill advocates said Obama needed to follow up the address with more work to convince legislators to approve a bill, ClimateWire reported. Republicans called for Obama to focus on an energy bill that will not include provisions on GHG emissions limits.

Dirk Forrister, climate change task force chairman during the Clinton administration, commented: "There are an enormous group of businesses and environmental NGOs [nongovernmental organizations] that are watching the State of the Union very closely to see whether Obama still has the fire in the belly for the climate issue that he had in Copenhagen, or whether he is going to back off at all."

Separately, the Houston Chronicle reported Monday night that Democratic leaders eager to put a cap on GHG emissions "are mulling a possible Plan B: tacking 'clean energy' measures onto a job-creation package and following that up with an 'energy-only' bill that doesn't contain a specific plan for combating climate change."

The newspaper went on to report: "That focused energy measure would expand drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, modernize the nation's aging electrical transmission system and mandate that electric utilities generate more of their electricity from wind, solar and other renewable sources."

According to the Chronicle, an 'energy-only' bill and producing a 'clean energy' jobs package would be "more politically attractive than the leading proposals for a cap-and-trade system."

- Related story also appeared in The Hill.