Lieberman: Climate talks to continue if debate punted to fall

Lieberman cautioned that a final decision on pushing climate debate until after the upcoming summer break may not be made until Senate Democrats meet Thursday to discuss the issue.

“I heard that blowing in the wind but I haven’t heard that definitively and I do think Senator Reid will be affected by what the caucus says,” Lieberman said of the plan to punt on climate until the fall. 

Lieberman and Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) have led an effort to install a first-time carbon-pricing plan on power plants. Lieberman said Reid will feel pressure to take the idea up in September if a deal is reached with electric utilities, which is deemed necessary to help attract centrists in both parties.
 
“I think there’s going to be a lot of interest in doing something broader when it comes to energy independence, particularly than just oil spill,” Lieberman said. “And obviously it depends on how successful we are in our negotiations over August.”
 
Kerry and Lieberman are still trying to help reach a deal with electric utility companies over key parts of a carbon-emission trading market, including how emission credits would be allocated.
 
A small band of environmental groups and electric utility companies sent a two-page memo to Reid Wednesday outlining recommendations for dealing with the allocation and other key issues. No details are available on those recommendations.
 
But a deal has not been reached with the Edison Electric Institute — a powerful trade group that represents investor-owned utilities.
 
The fact that there is insufficient time before the summer break to complete a climate bill was met with little surprise on Capitol Hill.
 
“The surprise is that we don’t have 60 votes for something so important that creates so many jobs,” Senate Environment and Public Works Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said.
 
“That probably reflects political reality,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said. “After the oil spill, a comprehensive proposal became hard to do.”

Graham had initially been the lone Republican partner to Kerry and Lieberman in their efforts to push through a broad climate-pricing and energy-production plan. But Graham said the Gulf of Mexico oil spill doomed for now consideration of the necessary language in such a broad plan to expand domestic oil-and-gas drilling and other domestic energy sources.  
 
While waiting until the fall may give Democrats more time to move a broader climate and energy plan, there is still skepticism that it is possible at all this election year.
 
“I just don’t think we have enough time to do that,” Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) said. “If you look at the history of energy bills around here, they almost always take at least three weeks, maybe quite a bit longer. And I just think it’s hard to see how you get the time to do it by the end of this year.”
 
He noted that there are spending bills and other legislative priorities to do in the fall before the November election and that the upcoming findings of President Obama’s debt and deficit commission may dominate a lame-duck session.
 
“You’re inside a hundred days in a toxic political environment,” Graham said. “It’s going to be very difficult, I think, to do something.”