US Senate Majority Leader aims for Democratic unity on warming

Washington (Platts)--12Apr2007

US Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid Thursday said he plans to meet in
the next several days with committee chairman with jurisdiction over
climate-change issues in an effort to reach a consensus on one or more bills
addressing global warming.

"Climate change other than Iraq, at least from my perspective is the most
important thing we can work on," the Nevada Democrat told reporters at a
Washington news conference. "Our world is falling apart before us."

Reid said he would work on developing a single Democratic approach to
climate-change legislation. But reaching a consensus among Democrats may not
be easy given the range of opinions on just how tough a warming bill should
be.

Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman,
Democrat-New Mexico, is hoping to move a bill that allows for federal
preemption of state laws and that would draw broad Republican support, while
Environment and Public Works Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer, a
California Democrat, is pressing for a more aggressive bill that would allow
her state to move ahead with its rigorous state climate change law.

In addition, Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, Democrat-Montana, has
voiced concerns over the potential impacts climate-change legislation could
have on the coal industry.

It is unlikely that any climate-change bill will come to the Senate floor
by Memorial Day, but Reid said Senate Democrats "are keeping our eye on the
prize," which is passage of climate change legislation in the Senate.

On energy legislation broadly, Reid said Bingaman "hasn't gotten as far
as I would like," and said the Senate will take up a federal buildings
efficiency bill that would come out of Boxer's committee within several weeks.

He said he hopes Bingaman will produce a bill that would include a
renewable portfolio standard requiring minimum electricity production levels
from renewable sources.

Bingaman, however, has said his initial draft of the efficiency bill will
not include an RPS because of a lack of bipartisan support. He said he plans
to offer such a measure as an amendment either in committee or on the Senate
floor.

--Daniel Whitten, daniel_whitten@platts.com