President Obama to Discuss Utility-Only Climate Bill With Senators

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said President Obama will discuss the option of utility-only GHG emissions limits in his climate change legislation meeting with senators on Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported. Emanuel said "a wide range of ideas will be discussed," and the concept of utility-only limits "will also be welcomed."

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., was expected to be invited to take part in the talks, along with Sens. John F. Kerry, D-Mass., Joseph I. Lieberman, ID-Conn., Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., and several others. Emanuel said Obama wanted to talk with "a wide range of people who have ideas" about the shape of the legislation. Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., said it will "be difficult to do in this climate," but added that "an energy-only bill is a great idea."

Brian Wolff, EEI's senior VP of external affairs, said EEI will discuss the utility-only option with its members, Politico reported. Wolff was quoted as saying: "We have not fully discussed utility-only since we have been working on a more comprehensive climate approach. However, we believe any utility-only energy and climate legislation would have to include major consumer protections to gain 60 votes in the Senate."

- Related story also appeared in the Washington Post via the Associated Press.

Detroit Free Press Endorses Kerry-Lieberman Climate Legislation

The Detroit Free Press, in an editorial, wrote that "Congress, not BP, has the cure for our continuing addiction to fossil fuels." After the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the newspaper said the Senate should approve the Kerry-Lieberman climate bill, which "balances its increasingly stringent [GHG emissions] limits with concessions to virtually every major energy stakeholder--loan guarantees for nuclear plant owners, exemptions for heavy industry, rebates for consumers, and so on--while endeavoring to generate millions of clean-energy jobs."

The Free Press noted that the legislation faces opposition from Republican senators claiming President Obama was "mixing apples and oranges by conflating climate change legislation with his campaign to reduce reliance on oil. But the president is merely connecting the dots. Projections indicate the Kerry-Lieberman bill would accelerate the transition from fossil fuels. A study by the Peter G. Peterson Institute for International Economics suggests the bill's mandates for alternative fuels and more efficient vehicles would reduce oil imports by one-third over the next quarter century."

Columnist: Utilities Would Be Hurt if Energy Legislation Stalls

National Journal columnist Ronald Brownstein said President Obama and the three senators readying a compromise energy bill--Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., John Kerry, D-Mass., and Joe Lieberman, ID-Conn.--"are making extraordinary efforts to address the concerns of energy interests and legislative moderates on both sides who have resisted action on climate. If those incentives can't break the logjam, the result could be a sustained stalemate that prevents the United States from advancing in any direction on energy."

The "grand bargain" the trio is work on features "more incentives for nuclear power and greater domestic production of oil and gas in return for limits on the carbon emissions linked to climate change." If this version of climate and energy legislation does not make it through Congress, Brownstein wrote, "stalemate would force more-severe carbon-emission reductions later on. It would also shroud the energy sector in uncertainty. That could especially hurt the utility industry." Duke Energy Chairman, President and CEO James Rogers was quoted as saying: "If you are going to modernize the fleet, you want to know what the carbon regime is."

President Obama Seeks Compromise With Key Senators On Climate Bill

President Obama used the White House as a backdrop to press a select group of key senators to come up with a compromise on climate legislation, Dow Jones Newswires reported. One change may be the way cap-and-trade will be involved: The term is dead, said Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, ID-Conn., but the concept is not: "We don't use that term any more. We will have pollution reduction targets."

During the closed-door meeting, President Obama was said to have "expressed his strong support for a bipartisan effort to establish clean energy incentives that will create jobs and reduce our dependence on foreign oil," a White House aide said, according to Reuters. The senators "agreed to continue the dialogue about a path forward for comprehensive energy legislation."

Lawmakers now are confronted with having to move quickly in an election year where the partisan sands on Capitol Hill are likely to shift the balance of power in both Houses –- although which way remains uncertain. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, was quoted by Dow Jones as saying: "It wasn't a discussion of specifics for a bill; rather, it was a discussion to talk about different approaches."

Noted the newswire: "The White House is offering a number of bargaining chips in its effort to win support. Last month, Obama proposed tripling funding to guarantee loans to the nuclear industry. The administration also has a bargaining chip in its power to open—or keep closed—new areas on the Outer Continental Shelf for oil and natural-gas exploration by energy companies."

The Washington Post reported that attendees included Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson, Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change Carol Browner, Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and NEC Directory Larry Summers, and Sens. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., Judd Gregg, R-N.H., George S. LeMieux, R-Fla., Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., Richard Lugar, R-Ind., Barbara A. Boxer, D-Calif., John F. Kerry, D-Mass., Lindsay Graham, R-S.C., Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and John D. "Jay" Rockefeller, D-W.Va.

- Related story also appeared in the Los Angeles Times Greenspace blog, March 9.