e&e news posts, articles, and infographics

Republican Candidates Wield Cap and Trade as Political Weapon

September 9, 2010 by Jesse Jenkins
with 1,311 views

If you live in states like Delaware, Pennsylvania, West Virginia or Kentucky, you may have already seen them: new political hatchet ads attacking Democrats and even some moderate Republicans for support of Congressional cap and trade bills. According to E&E News ($usbcription required), the climate policy, which narrowly passed the... [read more]

Big oil and coal jump on the natural gas bandwagon - But continue to oppose clean energy future

March 18, 2010 by Joseph Romm
with 336 views

The natural gas lobby is fighting coal, whose lobbyists “continue to stress the economic advantages of the fossil fuel.” And the coal companies are trashing natural gas in advertisements as having “higher and more volatile prices” (click here). But even as they lobby hard to prevent passage of comprehensive clean energy jobs and... [read more]

Obama meets with (too many) swing Senators on bipartisan climate and clean energy jobs bill

March 9, 2010 by Joseph Romm
with 293 views

What I think Obama needs to be doing now is hard lobbying one-on-one with key swing senators. That way he can focus on a targeted pitch for each one and have a frank discussion. He needs to start moving people one-by-one from the “fence sitter” to the “probably yes” category. Instead, he (and Energy Secretary Chu,... [read more]

Utilities won't support utility-only cap

February 4, 2010 by Joseph Romm
with 84 views

A climate bill without any emissions cap may be politically unworkable, as we’ve seen — Stick a fork in the energy-only bill: Lindsey Graham (R-SC) slams push for a “half-assed energy bill”. Because of the challenge of getting 60 votes for an economy-wide emissions cap, some folks are pursuing the idea of a climate bill with a cap just... [read more]

Graham says Obama has his back on climate bill

December 4, 2009 by Joseph Romm
with 285 views

Sen. Lindsey Graham may be under fire from conservatives back home in South Carolina. But the Republican got a personal assurance from President Obama yesterday that the White House is supporting his efforts to craft a sweeping Senate energy and global warming bill. “The president told me personally he was very open, that nuclear power... [read more]

Reid: “I think if we do it right, the energy bill, the climate bill can be very, very job productive” — plans floor debate on bipartisan bill “sometime in the spring”

November 17, 2009 by Joseph Romm
with 293 views

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) today confirmed that floor debate on a sweeping energy and global warming bill that will be sold to the American public in part as an economic stimulus measure will be held early next year. “We’re going to try to do that sometime in the spring,” Reid told reporters when asked about the window... [read more]

Sen. Baucus (D-MT): “There’s no doubt that this Congress is going to pass climate change legislation.”

November 6, 2009 by Joseph Romm
with 74 views

Contrary to reports from many in the media, the prospects for a climate bill are as good as ever now that the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee has finished its work. E&E News makes that clear in a series of interviews with key Senate swing votes,”Senate moderates see an opening now that EPW gridlock is history” (... [read more]

Senate EPW Dems pass Kerry-Boxer out of Committee without any Republican participation

November 5, 2009 by Rebecca Lutzy
with 328 views

For the past three days Democrats on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee have waited for Republicans to come to the table to participate in the mark-up up of comprehensive climate and energy legislation. This morning the wait was over and Democrats moved forward on their own to pass the legislation out of committee,... [read more]

WashPost gets climate bill politics story backwards, buries the big news: Graham and Kerry are in talks with White House “to discuss a possible compromise.”

November 2, 2009 by Joseph Romm
with 123 views

The big climate bill story of the last few weeks is the breakthrough Senate climate partnership between Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and John Kerry (D-MA). The result — E&E News’s latest analysis shows, “At least 67 senators are in play” on climate bill. This isn’t to say Senate passage will be easy, but I think it is now likely,... [read more]