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Post Carbon has the good news:

Senate Majority Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has instructed Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) to produce a revamped climate bill as soon as possible, according to sources, a task Kerry intends to accomplish within two weeks.

The marching orders could represent the best chance advocates will get to pass a climate and energy bill before the November elections. Kerry has been working with Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) on drafting a measure that could attract bipartisan support, but it remains unclear what combination of policies would draw enough votes to win passage.

“The majority leader is deadly serious about making progress this year on climate and energy reform,” Kerry said in a statement. “He’s been a hero every step of the process and he’s been in constant communication. Senators Lieberman, Graham and I have been meeting every day and we’re on a short track here, piecing together legislation and working with our colleagues so it can be finished and rolled out soon.”

Despite Majority Leader Reid’s confidence, Senator Brown doesn’t think a comprehensive climate bill is likely to pass this year:

On climate change, Brown said he doesn’t see Congress passing a bill this year.

“Health care was hard enough,” he said. “Climate change will be harder for a lot of reasons.”

Instead, he said, they’ll work to enact parts of legislation, including regulations that require utilities to increase production from renewable sources, and incentives for other clean energy businesses.

“Climate change legislation is ultimately a jobs bill if it’s done right,” he said.

Majority Leader Reid gave a speech today at a major geothermal energy conference (PDF) in New York, unexpectedly dropping a few bombshells regarding climate change legislation and Senator Murkowski’s recent efforts to gut the Clean Air Act.

On climate legislation, Senator Reid said (emphasis mine):

“We have a lot on our plate. We have to finish reforming health insurance and Wall Street, and also must help bring Americans out of unemployment. But we are not so busy that we can’t find the time to address comprehensive energy and climate legislation.

“Senators Kerry, Graham and Lieberman have taken a lead in trying to craft a framework that would get more than 60 votes. We will need at least that many for two reasons: One, because any bill that seeks to rein in global warming pollution will be fought very hard by the same companies that profit most heavily from polluting. And two, because the rules of the Senate make it easy for a determined minority to stand in the way of all the good ideas you’re hearing at this forum.

Every Senator who argues that the schedule is too tight this year for climate legislation — such as Lieberman (I-CT) — should have Senator Reid’s remarks  thrown in their face.  Tangentially, it is interesting to see the Majority Leader speaking critically of the filibuster at a time when the practice is being hammered on a near-daily basis by commentators and legislators.

On Senator Murkowski’s Dirty Air Act amendment, Senator Reid said:

“For example, next week Senator Murkowski of Alaska may offer an amendment – to a completely unrelated bill, it should be noted – that would stop the EPA from protecting Americans from global warming pollution. It’s a highly political move, and a highly hazardous one to our health and the environment.

“If this Senator succeeds, it could keep Congress from working constructively in a bipartisan manner to pass clean energy legislation this year. That’s why I will work hard to defeat this misguided amendment.

I’m glad Reid is calling Senator Murkowski out on this publicly. Perhaps he has learned from his negotiations last year with Senator Lieberman. As I’ve argued several times before, Senator Murkowski will never support meaningful action to address climate change. Senator Reid seems to have recognized this, and appears to be dealing with Senator Murkowski appropriately:

When push comes to shove the important thing is that negotiators in the Senate are able to tell the difference between Senators who are participating in the debate in good faith and those who are not.  Then they should completely ignore those who are not.

With the Majority Leader and all Democrats on the EPW Committee announcing their clear opposition, the time to move in for the kill is now.

Use the links and/or petition form below to take action:

RePower America — Protect the Clean Air Act — Write a Letter
Green For All –Tell your Senators to oppose a roll back of the Clean Air Act.
Greenpeace — Defeat the Murkowski amendment and Protect the Clean Air Act
National Wildlife Federation — Protect Your Right to Clean Air

As of Friday November 13th, co-signers include Senators Gillibrand, Lautenberg, Merkley, Reed, Whitehouse, Dodd, and Cardin.

Dear Majority Leader Reid:

We strongly embrace the promise of clean energy to make America more energy independent, create millions of new green jobs, and stave off the worst effects of global warming. In order to accomplish all of these goals, we need to begin to de-carbonize our utility sector and make the transition to clean energy. We were very pleased to see that the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act that was reported out of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee protects the Clean Air Act’s requirements that existing coal-fired power plants, the nation’s biggest global warming polluters, meet up-to-date technology standards for carbon dioxide. We strongly urge you to ensure that these Clean Air Act protections remain in the energy and climate bill that receives consideration on the floor of the Senate.

America’s aging fleet of coal-fired power plants, more than three-fourths of which were built prior to 1980, are responsible for a disproportionate amount of the country’s air pollution, including toxic mercury, soot and smog-forming pollutants, and carbon dioxide. Indeed, coal-fired power plants emit one-third of the nation’s total carbon dioxide emissions.

America cannot achieve the reductions in global warming pollution that science indicates are needed to protect future generations and the planet from catastrophic and irreversible global warming if we do not begin to de-carbonize the utility sector today and start the march to clean energy. This transition will help rebuild our manufacturing base by creating jobs in clean energy technology, increase our energy security, and reduce global warming pollution.

Yet this necessary transition to clean energy could well be short-circuited if old and inefficient power plants continue to be favored in America’s electricity market. This would crowd out any sizable move to wind and solar power and other clean energy sources, since the U.S. Department of Energy projects that electricity demand will be relatively flat over the next 20 years (an annual average growth rate of less than 1 percent).

Regrettably, this crowding-out scenario appears all too plausible if, contrary to the Clean Air Act, a massive loophole is created for existing coal plants, such that they never have to meet performance standards for their carbon pollution. In the absence of such performance standards, utilities may very well continue to operate—or even expand—existing plants in the early years of the program rather than invest in cleaner sources of energy. This is in large part due to three key features of many legislative proposals during the program’s early years: the economy-wide cap on global warming pollution tightens slowly, allowances to pollute are largely distributed at no cost to the polluter, and carbon offsets can be liberally used in the place of actual reductions from covered sources. Further, in the medium term—as the economic realities set in of an emissions cap that is increasingly tightening and allowances to pollute that are increasingly auctioned rather than given away—those utilities that have delayed transitioning to cleaner sources of energy may confront the need to abruptly shutter aging coal plants that continue to provide the bulk of America’s electricity. In the face of potential brownouts or blackouts, tremendous political pressure would be brought to bear to weaken the cap, a result that would compromise our economic, national security, and environmental goals.

In order to prevent such a scenario from coming to pass, the cap on emissions must be paired with clean energy standards and Clean Air Act or equivalent performance standards for power plants that ensure that America moves to clean technology at a reasonable pace and can achieve the needed longer term cuts in pollution.

Such an approach—pairing a cap on emissions with performance standards for power plants—is the path Congress took in 1990 when it enacted the highly-successful Acid Rain Program, the nation’s first cap-and-trade program. At that time, Congress debated eliminating the Clean Air Act’s requirements that power plants meet source-specific standards, but Congress instead recognized that those standards are essential to drive technology improvements.

As strong supporters of clean energy, we urge you to ensure that energy and climate legislation builds on the existing Clean Air Act and does not create loopholes for old, inefficient, and polluting coal-fired power plants. Consistent with the approach taken in the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act, the bill should require coal-fired power plants—old and new alike—to meet up-to-date performance standards for carbon dioxide that will complement an overall cap on emissions and move America to clean energy.

Sincerely,
Robert Menendez

Senator Reid:

“The committee’s action today is a critically important step toward crafting a good strong clean energy and climate bill. There is much more work yet to do to obtain broad support for bipartisan legislation that can quickly put our nation on a path of reducing emissions cost-effectively and creating jobs and a cleaner more secure future.”

Several political dynamics are running immediately beneath the surface of news coverage of the swine flu outbreak. First and foremost, the confirmation of Kathleen Sebelius as Health and Human Services Secretary is being held up by GOP Senators because she is – GASP – pro-choice. More importantly, a growing chorus of bloggers and Mexican media outlets are pointing to an American-based company, Smithfield, as 50% owner of the Mexican farm where the swine flu is believed to have originated.

Sebelius Confirmation as Health and Human Services Secretary

This story will receive significant attention today as the Senate prepares to vote sometime in the afternoon or evening. Joe Sudbay has the text of the unanimous consent agreement, which indicates that we could see a vote by 6pm today. Sudbay’s critique of the GOP obstructionism on this is a thing of beauty. SEIU has a petition running and I’m assuming that won’t be all we’ll hear from them on this. Greg Sargent has a bit of a back and forth between spokespeople for Senators Reid and McConnell, and his conclusion hits the mark: “The filibuster over an abortion controversy is still throwing a hurdle in the way of this nomination, despite the flu epidemic.”

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