Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Brown Sees Pivotal Moment For Industry

By Margaret Kriz Hobson  

Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio

During the ongoing climate change discussions, Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio., has emerged as the Senate's point man on the industrial Midwest. Brown, who is widely considered to be a liberal, is pushing Senate Democrats to require that importers pay a carbon dioxide fee for products made in countries that don't control their greenhouse gases. He also wants Congress to provide free allowances under the cap-and-trade program to companies that need to transition to using cleaner-burning fuels and manufacturing green-energy products.

Brown talked about his position on climate change in an Oct. 23 interview with National Journal reporter Margaret Kriz Hobson.

NJ: How did you get involved in the climate change negotiations?

Brown: I'm not really on any of the committees that mark up [climate change legislation]. I'm on Agriculture, but [Chairwoman Blanche] Lincoln is likely not going to mark up.

I got involved early in the term, during roundtables around the state. I've done about 140 roundtables. The more I did these, the more I saw a road ahead on climate change and how we can do climate change right, and get to the target [greenhouse gas emission reduction] numbers. I think the whole idea of climate change legislation is a moral question. I want this to work. I'm not doing any of this to slow it down or to kill it, unlike some. No names, but I think that typically happens around here.

There are six major industries that are trade-sensitive that are energy-intensive: aluminum, cement, chemicals, glass, paper and steel. And Ohio has all of them. So we included several of them in the roundtables. It became increasingly clear to me where we need to go on this.

Ultimately, climate change is a jobs issue. And if we do it right, we can make my state the Silicon Valley of alternative energy. Toledo, Ohio, already has more solar jobs than any city in America. We have the largest insulation company.

If we don't do climate change right, we lose manufacturing jobs and we really lose in the net increase in carbon dioxide emissions if the jobs go overseas, particularly to the developing countries, because they emit more.

It's a question of two categories in this bill for me. One is: What happens to consumer prices, do we blunt the price spikes? Then there's the question of manufacturing. There are three things we need to make this work right for U.S. manufacturing and our place in the world and to deal with the moral issue. First, it's dealing with [free emission credits under the proposed cap-and-trade program] in a way that works for manufacturing. Second is some border adjustment, which is a key to this. And third is assistance for transitional industries. To go from mostly auto chain supply, at least in my part of the country, to alternative energy. If you can make glass for cars, you can make glass for solar panels. If you make gears for trucks, you can make gearboxes for wind turbines.

NJ: You also have coal mining and coal-fired power plants in Ohio. How do you deal with them in the bill?

Brown: We know coal is going to be part of the future in a big way. We need to use some of the resources that come out of cap-and-trade to accelerate research for disposal of carbon dioxide for sequestration.

NJ: Are you weighing in on the question of whether the Senate should adopt the same allowance distribution plan as the House? That plan was developed by Edison Electric Institute and it splits the free allowances allocated to the utility industry, with half based on the company's greenhouse gas emissions and half based on their total electricity sales. The coal industry says the allowance plan is unfair to coal-fired power plants.

Brown: I don't know how we're going to do that on allowances for coal. I have the gamut in Ohio of utilities that are in different places on this. Some most aggressively support [the EEI allocation proposal]; some are obdurately against. Duke and its CEO, Jim Rogers, is supportive. [American Electric Power] is supportive, but not as enthusiastic. First Energy is not at all happy about the way this is coming down.

NJ: You're promoting trade provisions. But hasn't President Obama opposed such tariffs?

Brown: I think the president is already at the table on this. I know what he said earlier, but I don't think he's said it [recently]. What's relevant is how you make this work, and nobody's come up with a better idea.

NJ: Some analysts say the climate change debate is a battle between the coastal states, which favor greenhouse gas controls, and the midwestern states that rely on coal-based electricity. How do you get the two regions to work together?

Brown: We're going to meet on this, because we want to do it. They need us, we need them. You're right. It's more geographic than it is partisan. But everybody -- [John] Kerry, [Barbara] Boxer and the president -- all know that they've got to deal with manufacturing. So something significant is going to happen with manufacturing.