An Energy Bill Wrapped in an Enigma

The new package is supposed to be finalized next week. So why doesn’t anyone know anything about it?

Michael Reynolds/zumpress.com

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


Senate Democrats plan to debate an energy package when they return from this week’s recess—one they hope will be a slam-dunk with voters, considering the outrage churning in the country after the Gulf disaster. But there’s still shockingly little in the way of specifics—including whether the package will include any climate change provisions at all.

Democrats emerged from a caucus meeting in late June flying high on the idea that a comprehensive package—one that sets new rules on the oil industry, incentivizes clean energy production, and possibly puts a price on carbon—would be a winner. And if Republicans blocked it, they reasoned, Democrats could use it as a bludgeon in the November elections.

“A number of senators said this was the best caucus they’ve ever attended,” said majority leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). John Kerry (D-Mass.) described the meeting as “inspirational.” Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) said it was “an uprising of rank-and-file members of the caucus.”

But that initial enthusiasm was short-lived. After a bipartisan group of senators met with President Obama, Republicans were still reticent about a cap on carbon, while Democrats said they had offered to scale back their plans yet again.

Now, just days before the July session resumes, no one seems to have any idea where things are headed. “Staff are preparing options for members to review next week but no decisions yet,” said Reid spokesman Jim Manley. “I don’t have a sense, and I’m not sure that anybody firmly has a sense, of what is being brought up and when,” said a Democratic aide.

Part of the problem is that a cap on carbon dioxide—the main point of an energy package back when Congress started talking about a “comprehensive strategy” more than a year ago—never quite got off the ground in the Senate. Now, there seems to be some hope that a cap might make it through as part of a bigger bill, especially with all the oil-spill related measures attached. Another possibility is a bill with a limited cap—there has been speculation, for example, that Sens. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) might pair up to introduce a bill that would include a cap covering only power plants.

But Bingaman’s spokesman has downplayed the suggestion that he would have a utilities-only bill ready to go this year—he’s still fighting for his own standalone energy bill, which passed through the Energy and Natural Resources Committee last June. That bill has been criticized by environmental groups—not only does it provide lavish incentives to coal, oil, and nuclear power, it doesn’t even include a cap at all. In an appearance on CSPAN over the weekend, Bingaman said that he doesn’t think any sort of cap—written by him or by anyone else—has a chance of passing this year. “I could support such an approach, but I do think that when you look at the makeup of the Senate today, there are quite a few senators who I think are going to be resistant to anything that could be labeled as cap-and-trade,” said Bingaman on Sunday.

John Kerry, the Senate’s biggest champion of a comprehensive carbon cap, has indicated that he might be willing to work on some version of a scaled back bill, now that his own bill, introduced in May, seems to have sputtered out. Kerry “has been and continues to be committed to passing comprehensive legislation this year that puts a price on carbon,” said his spokesperson, Whitney Smith, but he is “open to several options currently in the Senate that will achieve that goal” and will work to “bring the best possible bill to the floor this summer.”

Environmentalists, meanwhile, are trying to salvage some manner of a cap, even if it’s not the sweeping bill they have worked for all this time. “We understand the reality is that a comprehensive, economy-wide cap-and-trade system is not going to be passed by the Senate,” said Fred Krupp, president of the Environmental Defense Fund. “We’re for the broadest cap we can get.”

They are less enthusiastic, however, about the Senate passing another energy bill without any cap at all. Environmental groups say Bingaman’s energy bill by itself would be a nonstarter, amounting to the “status quo… a band aid,” said Joe Mendelson, director of global warming policy at the National Wildlife Federation. Whether they would support a bill that capped only utilities depends on the specifics of the plan and how it would phase in other sectors over time, Mendelson said. A utility-only bill, said Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club, “has to be very ambitious to go beyond business as usual.”

Environmental advocates, who have now watched a host of climate bills emerge and then quickly fade in the past year, are beginning to wonder why Obama isn’t stepping in to help. A group of nine major environmental and progressive groups sent a letter to Obama last week calling for him to take a more active role on the Senate bill, a sign that they’re growing impatient. “The president has to directly engage with his staff at a detailed level to produce a bill with carbon limits that can pass,” said Krupp.

Without some direction from Democratic leadership—most importantly, the guy over on Pennsylvania Avenue—the path ahead for energy and climate remains unclear. “Let’s be honest, we’re adrift,” said Brune. “There is no plan. There is no clear author or director or coordinator of a plan.”

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate