Senate Panel Set to Take on Climate Bill
By IAN TALLEY
WASHINGTON -- The Senate debate over climate legislation is set to begin in earnest this week, with a key panel holding hearings on legislation that would curb U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions.
The hearings by the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works mark the first phase in what is likely to be a months-long undertaking by Senate Democrats to try to pass a climate bill.
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Democratic Sens. Barbara Boxer and John Kerry, shown in Washington in September, unveiled a detailed version of climate legislation on Friday.
After months of delays, Democratic Sens. Barbara Boxer and John Kerry on Friday unveiled a more-detailed version of their climate legislation. The version of the bill, which would seek to cut greenhouse-gas emissions by 20% below 2005 levels by 2020, includes new provisions intended to hold down costs to consumers and certain industries.
The Senate bill being debated this week is similar, in both broad outlines and many details, to legislation passed by the House. It would require companies across the economy to hold government-issued permits allowing them to emit greenhouse gases, which are believed to contribute to global warming. Over time, the government would reduce the number of permits issued, bringing down emissions, while allowing companies to trade the permits among themselves.
Like the House measure, the Senate bill attempts to ease the costs to industry by initially giving away for free permits to certain industries, such as electric utilities and makers of steel and cement.
Oil-industry officials reacted negatively to the latest version of the Senate legislation. Compared with other industries, oil companies would receive one of the smallest shares of the allocations in the current proposal, despite being one of the biggest greenhouse-gas sources. American Petroleum Institute President Jack Gerard said the Boxer-Kerry bill was "worse" than the House version. "It will impose even greater costs on the economy and distribute those costs just as inequitably," he said.
How the allocations are divided between industries is one of the most contentious aspects of the legislation. President Barack Obama, shortly after taking office, proposed auctioning off most of the emission permits to help fund tax cuts for the middle class. But the administration has given up on that approach in an effort to gain the support of many key industries, such as power companies and steelmakers.
The proposal by Ms. Boxer, of California, and Mr. Kerry, of Massachusetts, is likely to go through several iterations, as lawmakers seek to gain enough support to pass the measure on the Senate floor. Still, Democratic leaders are signaling that the measure faces a long road. Majority Leader Harry Reid has suggested the chamber may have to wait until next year to vote on legislation putting a price on carbon, in part because of the chamber's preoccupation with health care.
Ms. Boxer has said she plans for her panel to vote on the bill as soon as the first week in November. That timetable could slip, depending on how Republicans respond to the latest version. Friday, Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma, the ranking member on the environment committee, said Republicans on the panel were prepared to block a vote on the legislation if the Environmental Protection Agency hadn't conducted what he believed to be adequate economic study.
In a short analysis of the bill released late Friday, the EPA said the Senate version would have a similar estimated economic impact as the House bill, passed in late June. The EPA estimated the House bill would cost the average household 22 cents to 30 cents per day, or $80 to $111 per year.
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