Senate To Put Off Cap And Trade Until Spring
Nov 18, 2009 4 Comments ›› Pat Dollard
Senate Democratic leaders said Tuesday they would put off debate on a big climate-change bill until spring, in a sign of weakening political will to tackle a long-term environmental issue at a time of high unemployment and economic uncertainty.
Legislation on health care, overhauling financial markets and job creation will be considered before the Senate takes up a measure to cap emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases linked to climate change, Senate Democratic leaders said Tuesday.
Climate legislation will be taken up “some time in the spring,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said Tuesday after a Democratic caucus meeting.
The delay was “just a matter of reality, they can’t get anything done at this time,” said Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.), who has previously supported climate legislation. He has said he wouldn’t support the current Senate proposal because of disagreements over its handling of nuclear energy.
The climate-bill delay sidetracks one of President Barack Obama’s top domestic priorities. Mr. Obama has said action to curb greenhouse gases would unleash investment in clean-energy technology and create jobs.
White House spokesman Ben LaBolt said Tuesday Mr. Obama was working with lawmakers to move the legislation as quickly as possible.
“This is an economic opportunity for the nation that will create millions of clean energy jobs while reducing our dangerous dependence on foreign oil, and it’s an opportunity that other countries like China and India are racing to take advantage of,” Mr. LaBolt said in an email.
Momentum for a climate bill has been undermined by fears that capping carbon-dioxide emissions — the inevitable product of burning oil and coal — would slow economic growth, raise energy costs and compel changes in the way Americans live.
“It’s really big, really, really hard, and is going to make a lot of people mad,” said Sen. Claire McCaskill (D., Mo.).
Democrats looking ahead to the 2010 midterm elections are concerned about a backlash from voters in industrial and heartland states dependent on coal. Republicans are portraying Democrats’ “cap and trade” proposals, which call for capping overall U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions and allowing companies to buy and trade permits to emit those gases, as a “cap and tax” scheme.
Meanwhile, the administration is moving ahead with a plan to have the Environmental Protection Agency declare greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, a danger to public health. That would trigger potential regulations that could affect a wide swath of the economy.
Earlier this week, Mr. Obama and other world leaders scaled back ambitions for a global climate summit next month in Copenhagen.
United Nations leaders had called for a new, binding global agreement in Copenhagen to set caps on greenhouse-gas emissions. But at a meeting in Asia, leaders including Mr. Obama said they would try instead to use the Copenhagen gathering to forge an agreement that is “politically binding,” with specific commitments by countries to reduce emissions and help poor countries fight climate change. A legally binding deal would come later; diplomats point to mid-to-late-2010.
The Senate Finance Committee likely won’t begin deliberations on the climate bill until January, according to Sen. Barbara Boxer (D., Calif.), one of its sponsors. The bill was passed by the environment panel earlier this month.
The Commerce Committee may also weigh in on some of the bill’s provisions. The panel’s chairman, Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D., W.V.), is opposed to strong emissions limits.
“By the time we turn around, it’s March,” Ms. Boxer said of the likely timetable.
The House of Representatives narrowly passed its version of a climate bill in June, with dozens of Democratic lawmakers from industrial and coal-dependent states voting no.
