Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) could return to the fold and back the energy and climate change bill he abruptly walked away from on Friday evening, reports trade publication The Energy Daily.
Yesterday’s meeting between Senators John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Senator Graham was not fruitful. Senators Kerry and Graham are starting to get use to the idea of having to Shepard the climate change legislation alone, a Senate staffer tells us.
Concretely this means passing the bill will (in an optimistic scenario) take a lot longer as Kerry and Lieberman will have to single-handedly convince Republicans to support a bill they’ve largely opposed from the start. This was a lot easier to do with Graham backing the bill. “Without Graham we don’t have any Republicans,” a staffer with the Senate’s Energy and Natural Resources Committee tells us. The reality though is that even with Graham onboard the legislation, while benefiting from the support of key industry and environmental groups, was still short of 60 votes.
We’ve emailed and called the offices of Senators Kerry and Lieberman to ask if any other meetings were planned in the coming days. We will post back with updates.
The Energy and Natural Resources Committee official says that Congress has a full plate (Wall Street reform, immigration reform, climate change and energy…) and Majority Leader Harry Reid knows he’s got to make choices. If he puts immigration ahead of climate change, chances are that the climate change bill won’t be debated before Congress’s summer recess. It will also be a lot more difficult to pass any climate change legislation the closer we get to the mid-term elections.