Climate bill on track for debate Friday

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi late last night filed the Waxman-Markey climate change bill with the rules committee in hopes of bringing it to the floor by this Friday. House leaders are in negotiations with Ag Committee Chair Collin Peterson who is pushing for fewer burdens and more rewards in the climate change bill for farmers. Pelosi says they hope to have a deal worked out with Peterson by the time the vote comes to the floor on Friday.Whatever is put forth, if it were to pass the House and move to the Senate, Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says, “It just isn’t going to be brought up immediately because they don’t have 60 votes. And, so I think what happens there is you go through a process of negotiation maybe to make it reasonable, more reasonable than what the House bill is.” And “reasonable”, to Grassley, is an international climate agreement, “Because we need a level playing field with China and India which put more CO2 in the air than we do.”

Critics say the cap and trade portion of the bill will drive up energy costs and negatively affect  farmers and rural America. A Congressional Budget Office cost-analysis of the Waxman-Markey bill released last Friday gets little support from Ranking Ag Committee Member Frank Lucas who says it does not give the full picture of the bill’s impact on “American families, farmers, and small business.”

House Ag Committee 

Audio: Senator Chuck Grassley, Tuesday conference call with ag reporters