Washington (Platts)--23Feb2010/550 pm EST/2250 GMT

The US Senate's top negotiator on climate change said Tuesday that there was still tremendous momentum for passing a climate change bill this year, despite conventional wisdom that the Senate had lost its appetite for ambitious Democratic agenda items.

"I'm convinced this can be the year," Senator John Kerry said.

Speaking at a forum at the National Press Club sponsored by the New Republic, the Massachusetts Democrat said he met Monday with collaborators Senators Lindsey Graham, Republican-South Carolina, and Joseph Lieberman, Independent-Connecticut, and with Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, and that he will release a bill soon combining energy provisions with a cap on carbon.

Kerry said that Senator Harry Reid, Democrat-Nevada, had confirmed that he expected a bill soon, and that he would allot time for a vote.

Kerry spoke after another panel which included Karen Harbert, president and CEO of the US Chamber of Commerce. Harbert said that while the business community could support "aggressive" emissions reduction targets in the future, it preferred to see a pro-energy bill pass in the near term which would simplify the nuclear permitting process and increase domestic production of oil and natural gas.

Kerry called an energy-only approach "an escape" and "a cop-out" that would not spur the kind of change in the US energy portfolio that a price on carbon could bring about.

While he reiterated his support for an economywide cap-and-trade bill, Kerry acknowledged that Senate colleagues have proposed alternative methods of pricing carbon including a cap-and-dividend bill offered by Senators Maria Cantwell, Democrat-Washington and Susan Collins, Republican-Maine.

Negotiators were still mulling which approach to use in the bill, Kerry told reporters. "Every mechanism that's out there is on the table," he said.

--Jean Chemnick, jean_chemnick@platts.com