Blog

Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) are preparing to drop their climate change bill in the Senate this month, offering the president perhaps his best hope of enacting climate change legislation under his leadership. While the bill’s success is most directly dependent upon action and support from the Senate as a whole, there are many individuals both inside and outside the halls of Congress who will shape the legislation or its success. Here are the ten individuals TWI believes will exert the most influence on this legislation as it works its way through Congress.

Aaron Wiener contributed to this story.

Click here to begin slideshow.

The Democratic majority leader was lauded for his efforts enabling passage of the health care reform bill earlier this year. Now, the party, as well as the White House, will be looking to Reid make climate change legislation a reality. Reid’s ability rally Democrats, especially moderates and those in oil-friendly states, to support the bill will be key in determining its success in the Senate. The question is whether Reid’s impending re-election will influence how hard he’s willing to push a bill if it’s viewed as unpopular.

Next: 4. John Kerry

Rep. Boucher won’t be involved in crafting or shaping the Senate bill (since he is a member of the House), but that doesn’t mean the chamber’s forgotten about the potential power wielded by this Virginia Democrat. Boucher is a staunch defender of the coal industry and likely will fight any effort he views as threatening to his district’s major industry. Just last month, Boucher joined with fellow coal-supporting Democrats to introduce a bill suspending the EPA’s ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. If the Senate approves any climate change legislation, the bill will still need support from Boucher or other House Democrats in coal districts in order to win passage. Senate authors are likely to be already taking this into consideration at this early stage in the bill’s formation.

Next: 6. Lisa Jackson

As President and CEO of the American Petroleum Institute, Gerard is one of the biggest mouthpieces for the oil and gas industries in the climate change debate. API has in the past funded multiple ad campaigns to fight energy regulation and other issues. Currently, API is running an ad campaign that argues that the president’s budget will create $80 billion in energy taxes. API counts 400 companies as members, which is one reason why Kerry, Graham and Lieberman met with Gerard in March to discuss the legislation. Though the final bill has yet to be published, it’s is widely expected to be more friendly to oil and gas than past proposals.

Next: 7. Rick Boucher

EPA Administrator Jackson won’t play much of a role in the upcoming Senate legislation, but she has certainly laid its foundation. Jackson basically gave Congress a timeline of January 2011 to regulate greenhouse gases, officially stating that the EPA will take matters into its own hands in January 2011 if Congress can’t do the job. This places major pressure on members opposed to regulating greenhouse gases — while are loathe to support this type of legislation, they are even more wary of offering the EPA full control of the issue allowing Congress to be entirely cut out of the process.

Next: 5. Harry Reid

As the Democrat in the “tri-partisan” Graham-Lieberman-Kerry Senate climate bill, Kerry will be responsible for rallying Senate Democrats, especially liberals, to get behind the legislation. It’s expected that some liberals will protest the Senate bill and argue that it doesn’t go far enough to combat climate change. Though many of these opponents will end up voting for the bill anyway, regarding it as a step in the right direction but not the final word, Kerry is in danger of losing support from select lawmakers such as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). If Kerry fails to get Sanders or other outliers on board, it will only lead to a more difficult, and louder, debate on the Democratic side. And ultimately, it’s Kerry who is the policy heavyweight in the Senate trio — and the entire nation will be looking to him to craft a bill that’s not only effective, but also politically palatable.

Next: 3. Barack Obama

Not only is Sen. Collins (R-Maine) one of the key swing senators Graham, Kerry and Lieberman will be looking to court, but Collins is the author of competing climate change legislation. Collins and Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) in December introduced the Carbon Limits and Energy for American Renewal (CLEAR) Act, which aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by forcing companies to bid on carbon permits and directing that revenue back to consumers. Graham, Kerry and Liberman have vowed to roll elements of the CLEAR act into their bill, but if Collins isn’t satisfied with their wording, they could lose her support and potentially destroy the bill’s success in the Senate.

Next: 1. Lindsey Graham

As the head of the Chamber of Commerce’s Environment, Technology and Regulatory Affairs Division, Kovacs wields considerable power as a lead voice for the business community on environmental issues. And Kovacs makes his voice heard. Last year, he called for a public hearing on the scientific evidence for man-made climate change, saying: “It would be evolution versus creationism… It would be the science of climate change on trial.” He later rescinded the analogy, but said his basic point remained the same. But anyone spearheading climate change-related regulations has the business-community in mind. The question is, how much will they need to bend to the Chambers’ demands in order to receive wide public support?

Next: 8. Jack Gerard

Time magazine called Romm, editor of Climate Progress, “the Web’s most influential climate change blogger.” He has past served as a key force to rally progressives behind Democratic proposals. When the House last month approved a clean energy and climate bill, Romm offered readers a reason why to support the bill, even if they didn’t believe it did enough to address climate change: “Many people have asked me how I can reconcile my climate science realism, which demands far stronger action than the Waxman-Markey bill requires, and my climate politics realism, which has led me to strongly advocate passage of this flawed bill.” Legions of followers will soon be looking to Romm, a former assistant Secretary of Energy and a current Center for American Progress senior fellow, to parse the upcoming legislation as well as to make them comfortable with its flaws.

Next: 9. William Kovacs

Technology: CDMA
Rumored Carrier: Verizon Wireless
Rumored Release Date: April 29, 2010

The HTC Incredible comes equipped with Android 2.1 (Eclair) with HTC Sense, 1 Ghz Snapdragon processor, 8GB internal memory, plus 512MB of ROM and 512MB DDR of RAM memory.  Other key features include an 8MP camera with video captures, easy access to YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, as well as a 3.5mm headset jack.  The best picture we found of the device is only a render so when the official HTC and Verizon pics become available we will update the site.

Popups were an understandable workaround for the shortcomings of the iPhone operating system. But with OS 4, Apple missed their chance to build a good alert system. Now, popups are about to get way out of hand. More »

After the failure of its new line of Pre and Pixi smartphones, there’s only one escape for Palm (PALM)–a sale of the company.

Palm has hired Goldman and Frank Quattrone’s Qatalyst Group to sell the company, Bloomberg reports.  HTC and Lenovo are said to be sniffing around.  Early bids may come in this week.

On Friday, Palm’s stock jumped sharply on the HTC rumors.

On the surface, Palm appears nearly worthless, but here’s what a Palm buyer will get…

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Palm Stock Soars On HTC Takeover Rumors
• Palm Spikes On Takeover Rumors; Will Lenovo Make An Offer?
• Apple Has Already Sold More iPads Than Palm Pres Sold Last Quarter

WSJ: The Greek bailout could make things WORSE for Portugal and Spain.

Join the conversation about this story »

This news is not confirmed yet but has been hinted at, at Bloomberg. This post at Bloomberg titled “Palm Said to Tap Goldman, Quattrone to Find Buyers (Update1)” says that palm is making itself available for sale. The post is based on news from three inside people familiar with the situation and spilling the beans for Bloomberg.

According to those sources, the bidding will commence this week. Earlier, potential buyers included HTC, Lenovo and Dell. While HTC and Lenovo have announced their wish to enter the bid, Dell has decided to back out.

Whosoever buys Palm, will save its plummeting stocks and get the company back on track. Though, this will be a big challenge for the buyer. Frank He, a technology analyst commented on this rumor saying,

Palm still has quite a good brand in the U.S. market, and some strong technology, so you can do something with it. The shares have gone down a lot and the company may become attractive to anyone looking for a turnaround play.

This year has been bad for Palm. It recorded a 60% surge from Jan 2010 and a sharp 32% just last week. It is quite like the Sun Microsystems of the mobile world now. The more this deal drags on, the more loss it will make for Palm as well as the buyer. We will come back with more news on this once the rumor gains some credibility.

Don’t miss these Related Posts:

• Lenovo Unveils Thinkpad Edge Series of Laptop

Join Techie Buzz on Your Favorite Social Networking Sites

• Become a Techie Buzz fan on Facebook
• Follow Techie Buzz on Twitter

Three months on from the Haiti earthquake, Oxfam Great Britain’s Humanitarian Director Jane Cocking reports on Oxfam’s programme and the amazing efforts of ordinary Haitians.

I’m amazed at the progress I’m seeing here and the work Oxfam is doing. More on that in the video below. But people still don’t know what the future holds. So we’ve got to keep working with the Haitian government, the international community and the Haitian people themselves to really make that future better.

More on Oxfam’s Haiti earthquake response

Make a regular donation to the Oxfam 365 emergency fund

Oxfam GB CEO Barbara Stocking reports from Haiti three months on

In news that will surprise absolutely no one, socialite Paris Hilton has reportedly called time on her 14-month romance with former Hills star Doug Reinhardt — despite speculation that the pair were planning to wed.

(This guest post previously appeared at the author’s blog)

Insider buying cratered in the week ending April 9th as corporate executives refused to buy into the rally after the recent surge in stocks.  Buying has been consistently light since the rally started last March, but was particularly light this week.  Total purchases of just $2.1MM was the lowest level during the entire 75% equity rally though the weekly average has ticked slightly higher over the last 8 weeks.   Meanwhile, the heavy stream of insider selling continued as insiders unloaded $824mm onto the market.

Of course, insiders sell for various reasons so the high level of selling should be taken with a grain of salt, however, the very low levels of buying are clear evidence of skepticism with regards to the sustainability of any recovery.  As evidenced in weak hiring trends and revenue trends corporate executives have yet to see much evidence that this recovery is anything other than a cyclical rebound as opposed to a new secular economic cycle.

Buying was very light this week so there were few notable purchases:

Notable selling:

Read more market commentary at The Pragmatic Capitalist >

Join the conversation about this story »

Related posts:

1. Ron Paul on Money, Banking and the Crisis (1988) In this 1988 interview, Ron Paul talks about money, banking…
2. America’s Strength Is Freedom, Not Government In his latest column Ron Paul reminds us that freedom…
3. A Fresh Approach To Solving The Crisis In this globalized world we must remember that it’s not…

Twitter made some quite big moves over the weekend and managed to set its developer community ablaze in the process. It launched its own Blackberry app and, much more importantly, it bought the company behind Tweetie, one of the most popular Twitter client apps for the iPhone. Twitter says it will launch a Tweetie version with th… (read more)

This early check of the future’s market says it all. Everything’s in the green except the dollar and the yen.

You can thank Europe’s caving-in on Greece.

Join the conversation about this story »