10/13/2009
Senate Environment and Public Works Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said this week that she wants to pass the climate-change legislation through her committee (where Democrats hold a 12-7 majority) before the United Nations Copenhagen summit on climate change that begins on Dec. 7. Boxer said that she will issue a revised version of the climate-change bill soon, which she first had introduced with Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) on Sept. 30.
In a showing of bipartisan support for climate-change legislation, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) joined with Sen. Kerry to promote a plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. They proposed a compromise that reduces US carbon-dioxide emissions, which are widely considered to contribute to climate change, through a market-based cap-and-trade system, combined with a clean energy program that would provide incentives for nuclear power, offshore oil and gas drilling, and coal emissions controls. Proponents of the legislation hope Graham's support will spur action on the bill and bring along other undecided senators.
Meanwhile, Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) said her panel will have more hearings on climate-change legislation. Lincoln remains unconvinced that a cap-and-trade system is the best course to pursue. A question Lincoln raised during a July Agriculture Committee hearing on climate change was what impact the legislation will have on consumers—something she said she still has not received an answer to, but one of the topics an updated USDA analysis should address.
The latest from the Agriculture Department is that economists there are working to remove the “preliminary” label from analysis on the impacts of the House-passed climate-change legislation. Indications are that the updated analysis is nearly complete, with a goal to release it publicly yet this month—depending on how the interagency clearance process unfolds. The updated USDA analysis will include impacts on a regional basis, although there had been a desire to have that down to the state level. Also, more analysis has been done on the impacts on livestock, specialty crops and food prices.
We believe that the chances are good that the legislation will pass out of Boxer's Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. However, the measure still faces a rocky road in the Senate overall, where quite a few Democrats are not yet on board. In addition, several other committees still must take action of some sort, such as either a mark up or by having the chairman get the committee's language into the underlying bill. That all takes time and this is why we believe that getting the bill passed yet this year will be a real challenge.