http://washingtonindependent.com/86353/reids-energy-bill-letter-the-case-of-the-missing-word
Reid’s Energy Bill Letter: The Case of the Missing Word
By ELANA SCHOR 6/4/10 10:30 AM
When Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) asked major committee chairmen yesterday to offer “recommendations or report legislation” on clean energy before July 4, with an eye to considering a post-oil spill bill later that month, several news outlets interpreted the letter as boosting momentum for a climate change bill.
But as Center for American Progress blogger Joe Romm quickly pointed out, there was one big word missing from Reid’s letter to the chairmen: “climate.” The Senate letter includes no indication that the energy measure under consideration would include a nationwide cap on greenhouse gas emissions or a price on carbon, which President Obama directly called for in his Pittsburgh speech on Wednesday.
Of course, Reid’s omission of any reference to a full-scale emissions cap could have been inadvertent. What makes the absence of the C-word from the Senate letter a potentially ominous sign for environmental groups?
The fact that several senior Senate Democrats, including Energy Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) and Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), have pushed all year for a smaller, “energy-only” bill that would include a renewable electricity standard and other clean-fuel incentives — but not the greenhouse gas limits that were present in the House-passed climate plan.
...
If the spill ends up giving Democrats cover to aim for an energy bill that can overcome a GOP filibuster this summer, leaving strict emissions limits on the cutting-room floor, fierce pushback from environmental groups would likely ensue. But those green advocates might want to start by asking why the word “climate” never made it into yesterday’s letter.