If Sen. Graham Bails, Is There a Climate and Energy Backup Plan?

Reports out of Washington have alternated between sky-is-falling disaster and soothing claims of only minor delays in producing a Senate climate bill. Either way, Monday's unveiling date for the Kerry-Graham-Lieberman climate and energy plan has come and gone, with no legislation to be seen.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has been the only Republican voice behind the bill, aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions and overhauling much of the U.S. energy system. Over the weekend, however, he bristled at the Obama administration and Senate Democrats’ sudden push to deal with immigration reform ahead of climate and energy, calling it “nothing more than a cynical political ploy” as the 2010 elections loom.

"This has destroyed my confidence that there will be a serious commitment and focus to move energy legislation this year," Graham wrote to his colleagues on the bill, Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.). "I will not allow our hard work to be rolled out in a manner that has no chance of success."

Graham made similar comments Monday night after meeting with Kerry and Lieberman, who had hoped to get the bill back on track.

"I don't want to play politics with issues that really do mean a lot to me," Graham told reporters.

Environmentalists who support the senators' climate and energy plan will be placated if the result is only a few days of further delay as procedural issues and orders of operations are sorted out. But if the Kerry-Graham-Lieberman bill actually does lie in tatters, what next?

Graham Still Supports Climate Message

“This is very urgent, to address climate and energy legislation this year,” said David Doniger, the Climate Center policy director with the Natural Resources Defense Council. “We have to move quickly to get it done this summer in the Senate so it can be done this year in the whole Congress and signed by the president.”

Doniger pointed out that before abandoning hope completely, it is important to note that Graham has not changed his views on the specific message of the climate and energy bill.

The details of that bill have not yet been made public, but it is largely believed that it will follow the Obama Administration’s stated goals of lowering U.S. greenhouse gas emissions 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020 and 80 percent by 2050. It is expected to take an all-of-the-above approach to energy, with support for nuclear, offshore drilling and carbon capture and storage, and include an emissions cap for electric utilities.

“What is clear is that Senator Graham has not in any way pulled back from the substance of the initiative,” Doniger said.

“If the cap has got its basic integrity, then that’s very critical. We’re going to have to look very closely at other titles on matters like nuclear and offshore oil.”

Another Option: The CLEAR Act

If Sen. Graham’s concerns, be they procedural or substantive, prevent the bill from reaching the Senate soon, it is important to note that there is another bipartisan option already out there.

“There has been a lot of anticipating and waiting, and speculating and feverish discussion about when Kerry-Graham-Lieberman would drop a bill and what the bill would say,” said John Diamond, communications director for Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.). “And all along, all during that time, there already is a bipartisan climate bill that’s in the hopper, and has been there since December."

• 1
• 2
• next page »