Senators John Kerry (D-Mass.), Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) are pushing ahead to get their bi-partisan climate change and energy bill on the Senate floor for a full vote.
Yesterday, the three Senators and 11 of their colleagues — many representing coal producing states — met at the White House to chart a path to get some sort of climate change legislation passed. The House passed its own legislation, with its cap-and-trade provision, this summer.
Ahead of yesterday’s White House meeting with President Barack Obama, Kerry, Lieberman and Graham met with the American Petroleum Institute (API) and other pro-carbon industry groups.
Oil and gas companies have been arguing that hydrocarbons are here to stay. This has not prevented some, including BP and Royal Dutch Shell, to back cap -and-trade.
Actually, many carbon-dependent industries would prefer a legislated cap-and-trade pricing scheme instead of a regulatory regime administered by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
That’s what Exelon CEO John Rowe said over the weekend at the MIT Energy Conference where he urged for a full cap-and-trade system. Anything less, he said, would not work.
On the meeting yesterday on Capitol Hill, in a prepared statement, API CEO Jack Gerard said:
As a critical part of the nation’s economy, supporting over 9.2 million jobs, the oil and natural gas industry was pleased to participate in the senators’ briefing as they develop climate proposals. We look forward to seeing details of the senators’ proposal and hope to be a constructive participant as discussions move forward.
API did not support Waxman – Markey. The organization does support some sort of carbon pricing measure, but has been lobbying to have transportation fuels left out of cap-and-trade.
To ensure its oil and gas agenda is heard, earlier this month the API hired green activist Deryck Spooner. At the API he’s expected to organize grassroots campaigns in support of offshore oil and gas development and other key oil and gas-friendly measures.