CLIMATE COMPONENT FOR ENERGY BILL NEGOTIATED

Climate talks progress
Darren Samuelsohn (w/Coral Davenport), July 15, 2010 (Politico)

"A small group of environmentalists and electric industry officials reported progress – but no final deal…after a second day of closed-door talks on capping greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, according to three sources…"

[Eileen Claussen, president of the Pew Center on Global Climate Change:] “You’re dealing with a set of utilities who really want to do something and a group of environmentalists who know this is the best chance for a long time…People are really working through the stuff and so far so good. But there are more issues to deal with.”

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"…[T]he negotiations [are] taking place at Duke Energy Corp.’s downtown Washington offices…[I]ndustry and environmental officials are wrestling with an industry demand for regulatory relief from several existing Clean Air Act provisions…for agreeing to go first in a climate change program. They also are debating exemptions from EPA climate regulations and allocation of valuable emission allowances…with a mandatory greenhouse gas cap.

"…Duke, Exelon Corp., PG&E, PNM Resources and Dominion Resources…[and] Environmental Defense Fund, the Natural Resources Defense Council, Pew and the Bipartisan Policy Center…are in the room…Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s top climate aide, Chris Miller, nudged the small group together…Reid plans to bring the legislation to the floor as soon as the week of July 26…"

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"Back in the Senate, John Kerry met Thursday for about 90 minutes with Edison Electric Institute President Tom Kuhn and other EEI officials. EEI, the largest trade group for investor-owned utilities, wants exemptions from a range of existing EPA regulations, including a new proposal issued earlier this month to limit interstate pollution of smog and soot-forming emissions… More than 30 environmental and other groups weighed in on the Clean Air Act issue…with a letter to senators urging them not to make any changes to the existing law…"

[Kerry:] “Personally, I'm happy to include conventional, providing it's at a level that's appropriate…I'm not going to roll back any Clean Air Act requirements. If we put those requirements into a different form so that we're still adhering to them, that's a different issue, those are two different choices. But there's not going to be a rollback of current requirements."