Senate Climate Change Bill Delayed Until September

Just two days after the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee opened hearings aimed at quick passage of climate legislation, Senator Boxer, the California Democrat who chairs the committee, said she has changed the target date for mark up of the bill from August 7 to sometime in early September.

Boxer and the chairmen of other committees that share jurisdiction over the legislation met Wednesday evening with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, and Carol Browner, White House coordinator of energy and climate policy.

Reid agreed to extend by 10 days his original September 18 deadline for all six committees involved to complete their work on the bill, the "Congressional Quarterly" reported today.

"We don't have to rush it through," Boxer said. "We'll do it as soon as we get back, and we'll have it at the desk when Harry wants it, when the leader wants it."

Cinergy's coal-fired Zimmer power plant in Ohio is the largest single-unit fossil generating unit ever built. Power plants are among greenhouse gas emitters that would be regulated by climate change legislation. (Photo by Stefan Schlohmer)

Boxer's bill is expected to parallel legislation approved by the House June 26, which would place a cap on greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming and create a system for trading in permits to emit the heat-trapping gases.

She still intends to finish the climate bill this year, she said. There is pressure to have a bill on President Barack Obama's desk by December, when world leaders will meet in Copenhagen to finalize a global deal curbing greenhouse gas emissions that will take effect after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.

The Environment and Public Works Committee plans to hold a hearing next week on transportation and climate change.

Boxer attributed the delay to the Democratic push to enact national health care reform legislation. "A lot of our colleagues are on the health committee. It's been difficult," Boxer said.

On Wednesday, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat, had to skip a hearing in his committee on climate change so that he could meet with Reid on the health care bill, leaving Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts to oversee the testimony on the international trade implications of climate change legislation.

But Republican Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma said the delay is due to "A firestorm of opposition" that "arose from across the country this week as Democrats kicked-off debate on global warming legislation."

The Ranking Member on the Environment and Public Works Committee, and a long-time climate skeptic, Inhofe said, "So with this delay, the public should expect more arm-twisting and backroom deals - or, in other words, more business as usual in Washington. The American public can rest assured that I will be here, as I have done over the past 10 years, to expose the details of this devastating bill every step of the way."

Meanwhile, Senator Reid said Monday he will host the National Clean Energy Summit 2.0 in Las Vegas. On August 10, experts will focus on the job potential associated with developing renewable energy.

Former Vice President and Nobel Laureate Al Gore and energy entrepreneur T. Boone Pickens are among those who will participate in the summit to be held at the University of Nevada Las Vegas.

The summit will include roundtable discussions with national industry leaders, renowned scientists and respected policy experts, and will be followed by a public town hall forum and keynote address.

Copyright Environment News Service, ENS, 2009. All rights reserved.