“I want to emphasize it’s only the first step,’’ Obama said in the Rose Garden after a meeting with congressional leaders of both parties. “And I intend to keep pushing for broader reform, including climate legislation.’’
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs later went further, disputing the notion that a climate bill is dead for the year. He suggested that such a comprehensive bill could be negotiated between House and Senate members once, as the White House hopes, the Senate approves a scaled-back energy bill in the coming days.
Such a bill would then have to be approved by both chambers.
The House voted 219-212 last year for a “cap and trade’’ plan featuring economic incentives to reduce carbon emissions from power plants, vehicles, and other sources. It remains unclear how Democrats could muster the votes in the Senate to get even a version of that bill approved.
Republicans slammed the House bill as a “national energy tax’’ and jobs killer, arguing that the costs would be passed on to consumers in the form of higher electricity bills and fuel costs that would lead manufacturers to take their factories overseas.
The effort to pass a comprehensive bill in the Senate has been led by senators John F. Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat, and Joseph Lieberman, a Connecticut independent.
Senate majority leader Harry Reid has said no Republican senators were willing to vote for the broader energy bill he wanted, leaving Democrats shy of the 60 votes needed to overcome GOP delaying tactics. Reid, a Nevada Democrat, released details yesterday of the more limited bill. It has more modest goals such as encouraging heavy duty trucks to use natural gas and cars to use electricity. It would also strengthen safety and environmental standards for exploration in federal waters, and give Congress direct oversight of offshore energy production.
