A look at climate change legislation in the Senate

With the House passing the climate change bill last Friday, the focus now turns to the Senate. Darren Samuelsohn covers environmental and energy issues in Washington for the online subscription news service Greenwire. He says the process will begin in the Senate when they return from the July 4th recess. The Environment and Public Works Committee chaired by Barbara Boxer of California will write the bill, “She’s planning to have the legislation marked up in her committee at the end of July before the August recess.” Samuelsohn says Boxer should be able to put the bill together easily in her committee because the Democrats have a four-or-five seat cushion in the committee and it includes “Some of the more liberal Senators in the whole Congress.”Upon return from the August recess, five other Senate committees will deal with the measure, Agriculture, Commerce, Energy and Natural Resources, Finance and Foreign Relations. Samuelsohn says Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid wants all elements of the bill on his desk by September 18th. “He will then cobble all of those bills together into one giant package for floor debate,” which should take place this fall.

Darren Samuelsohn talks about the Senate dealings (11:00)

It is going to take 60 votes to get the bill through the Senate, Samuelsohn says as he sees it right now, there are 45 Democrats in the “yes” or “probably yes” column. On the other side, there are 32 Republicans in “unlikely” category which leaves 23 “undecided” Senators right now. That means there is going to be some dealing. Some believe the Senate will put more emphasis on the development of nuclear power in their bill in an effort to win some Republican support from people like John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. McCain has pushed for climate change legislation in the past and even forced a couple of votes in the Senate during the Bush Administration. However, Senator Reid is walking a thin line here at the risk of alienating some staunch anti-nuclear Senators in his own party like Barbara Boxer.

When the climate change bill was working its way through the House, Ag Committee Chair Collin Peterson was able to get a number of pro-agriculture provisions into the measure to gain his support. Samuelsohn says Senate Ag Committee Chair, Tom Harkin should have the same opportunity in the Senate. “Harry Reid has already brought Tom Harkin into the fold in a way that he wasn’t before.” So agriculture should find results similar to what ended up in the House version.

There has been some speculation that the Senate will take up health care before dealing with climate change, Samuelsohn expects action to proceed on both, if one advances first, they may jump on that one but they will not forget the other. “They’re pushing them both just as hard as they can.” Right now, Samuelsohn puts the chance for Senate passage of climate change at 50-50, “It’s a jump-ball, it’s really a matter of much does President Obama push, how much does he push to get John McCain on board and how much does he push to get a couple more of those industrial Midwest Senators.”

If the measure does not get through it creates a situation many are unaware of. “The United States Environmental Protection Agency has the authority under the Supreme Court 2007 decision in the Bush years that allows them to start writing regulations for greenhouse gas emissions.” Samuelsohn says there is a lot of concern about that coming to fruition and that is why Congress and President Obama are pushing to get the climate change bill passed.