Not all senators warming to Obama cap-and-trade emissions proposal

President Obama’s cap-and-trade plan to reduce carbon emissions hasn’t swayed key senators who blocked a similar bill last year.

The president’s plan, outlined in his budget blueprint, would set new
limits on carbon emissions and require companies to purchase pollution
credits in an auction.

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Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), who opposed cap-and-trade last June, said
that Obama’s plan would lead to an increase in energy costs and would
drive American firms abroad.

“It really does say to manufacturing, ‘Go to China, where they have
weaker environmental standards,’” Brown told The Hill. “And that’s a
very bad message in bad economic times — in any economic times.”

Brown added that he hasn’t seen any improvements in Obama’s plan over last year’s bill.

That legislation was sponsored by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and
championed by Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and then-Sen. John Warner
(R-Va.), but it still fell far short of the necessary 60 votes. The 48
senators who voted to move the bill ahead included most of the
Democratic Conference and a handful of centrist Republicans. More
senators, however, either voted against it or didn’t vote at all.

Three Democratic senators aside from Brown opposed it: Sens. Byron Dorgan (N.D.), Tim Johnson (S.D.) and Mary Landrieu (La.).

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who didn’t vote on last year’s bill but has
supported a cap-and-trade program in the past, panned Obama’s plan for
trying to use the sale of the permits to raise government revenue.

“The purpose of cap-and-trade legislation should be to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions, not to supplement the budget,” McCain told
The Hill.

The Obama administration and other proponents of the plan have said
that it would help lessen the harmful effects of global warming and
reduce the country’s reliance on foreign energy sources. Obama has
called for reducing emissions levels by 14 percent by 2020 and by 83
percent by 2050. The auction of the permits would also net the
government nearly $80 billion in new annual revenue starting in 2012,
which would be used to extend the Make Work Pay tax credit and fund the
development of new, cleaner energy sources.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has said the Senate will
take up a cap-and-trade bill this summer. Boxer, who plans to sponsor
the legislation, has remained open to using the budget reconciliation
process to make it easier to win passage for the bill. Legislation
attached to budget reconciliation bills needs only a simple majority to
move forward because those bills can’t be filibustered.

A cap-and-trade bill is expected to have an easier time getting through
the House, as Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has been a longtime
supporter of carbon emissions regulation.

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), another cap-and-trade supporter, praised
Obama for including an outline of his plan in his budget proposal and
said it’s up to lawmakers to fill in the details, such as the price of
carbon emissions permits.

“I think that’s exceptional and very promising,” he said. “Now the key is that we have to flesh it out.”

Kerry said advances in technology that could allow the capture of
emissions produced by coal power plants could allay the fears in coal
states about the bill.

Republicans against the cap-and-trade legislation have highlighted the
projected costs of the president’s proposal in an attempt to show his
budget plan would raise taxes on all kinds of Americans, not just the
wealthy.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) referred to the
cap-and-trade plan as an “energy tax” at the Conservative Political
Action Conference last week. And Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) said
Wednesday that the increased costs will hit the wallets of most
Americans, which is what Obama himself has tried to avoid.

“How does that not break the president’s promise not to raise taxes on
Americans making less than $250,000?” Bunning said Wednesday.