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<\/p>\nSenator-elect Scott Brown (R-Mass.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Is climate change legislation dead? Not quite, but it does face a new and unexpected hurdle called Senator-elect Scott Brown (R- Mass.).<\/p>\n
Staffers on Capitol Hill suggested to GER that last night’s stunning reversal is a game changer.<\/span> “It is certainly going to be an uphill climb to get a strong climate change bill passed,” one staffer with the Senate’s Committee on Energy and Natural Resources tells us. “Democrats are moving forward with their agenda, but Brown’s election is complicating things,” adds another Democrat Hill staffer.<\/p>\n For starters, Brown’s win over Martha Coakley destroys the Democrat’s filibuster-proof majority. That could sink climate change legislation — or at least one with a\u00a0cap-and-trade provision — into never ending Republican-led filibusters.<\/p>\n As it stands, last summer the House passed the Waxman-Markey bill <\/a>with its cap-and-trade provision. On the Senate side, three separate energy and climate change bills are being considered. Two (the Kerry-Lieberman-Graham<\/a> proposal and the Cantwell-Collins<\/a> CLEAR bill) have some form of cap-and-trade system. One, authored by Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), is an energy bill<\/a> that seeks to spur investments in cleantech. That bill does not have a cap-and-trade provision.<\/p>\n Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) remains optimistic (officially)\u00a0on getting the Senate to vote and pass some form of climate change legislation this year. He says the issue transcends politics and should get Republicans to cross the aisle. One already has, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).<\/p>\n In a statement emailed to GER by his staff, Senator Kerry says:<\/p>\n There\u2019s overwhelming public support and this can be a bi-partisan issue. It doesn\u2019t have to be polarized. Just listen to a conservative like Senator Graham or business leaders from across the ideological spectrum.\u00a0 This is the single best opportunity to create jobs, reduce pollution, and stop sending billions overseas for foreign oil from countries that would do us harm. Sell those arguments and you\u2019ve got a winning issue.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Will Senator Graham be the only Republican willing to make climate change (and cap-and-trade) a “winning issue?” Things don’t look good considering that the bi-partisanship invoked by Kerry has been none-existent since President Barack Obama\u2019s\u00a0swearing-in, just a year ago today.\u00a0 The reality is that despite Graham’s support, Republicans are hesitant to back a climate change bill or anything that seeks to cut\u00a0or price CO2.<\/p>\n Just yesterday, Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said that she would introduce<\/a> a Congressional Disapproval Resolution that would block enforcement of the Clean Air Act for greenhouse gases. She introduced a similar amendment in September that failed.<\/p>\n\n