Politico Contends Energy Legislation Moving Toward Center Stage

With health care behind them, Congress is returning its central focus on a climate bill amid partisan and intra-party squabbling by Democrats, Politico reported today. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who is key to allowing floor debate, has been reluctant to take up an energy-only bill, such as one approved by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee last June, the newspaper reported. That version of the legislation does not include a cap on GHG emissions.

Even Monday, Reid said no decisions had been made to move forward, and he acknowledged that he had a lot of "options on energy." While Reid has to placate Sens. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., the chairman of the Energy Committee, and Sen. John F. Kerry, D-Mass., Sens. Joseph I. Lieberman, ID-Conn., and Lindsay Graham, R-S.C., are also considered key players in the negotiations.

Graham was quoted by Politico as saying: "I'm still committed to trying to roll out a vision of how to price carbon and make it business friendly, but the truth of the matter is you are going to find most of our colleagues here risk-adverse."