Thursday, November 5, 2009

Carper Sees Limited Progress Pre-Copenhagen

By Margaret Kriz Hobson  

In April, Senate Environment and Public Works Chairwoman Barbara Boxer asked Sen. Thomas Carper, D-Del., to head up a working group to address some of the coal industry's concerns on climate change legislation. Carper worked with eight other senators, including six from coal states, to hammer out a plan that would encourage coal-based utilities to develop and install technology to capture power plant greenhouse gas emissions and sequester them underground. Much of the compromise language drafted by the team was included in the climate change bill now being considered by the Senate Environment Committee.

But the coal group was less successful in reaching agreement on several other key coal-related provisions, including whether the legislation should prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from using the Clean Air Act to control greenhouse gas emissions. That and other contentious coal-related issues are destined to be debated during the ongoing Senate climate change debate.

National Journal reporter Margaret Kriz Hobson spoke with Sen. Carper on Oct. 23 about the coal negotiations.

NJ: How did a Delaware senator get to lead the Senate coal working group?

Carper: We're a low-lying state. We have strong concerns about clean air. We're at the end of a massive tailpipe. All the bad stuff that's put up in the air, particularly in the Midwest, just blows over to our part of the country. If the worst turns out to be true, we're going to see sea-level rise. But coal will continue to play big role in energy production. So we've essentially said, "How can we preserve a role for coal knowing that we're going to need it as we tap the potential of solar and wind and other renewable forms of energy? While we stand up for additional nuclear power plants, how can we continue to use coal but do so in a way that doesn't threaten the health of our planet?"

NJ: Your group came up with some proposals to encourage the development of technology to capture and store greenhouse gas emissions. Why have you focused on that issue?

Carper: Utilities like certainty. They wanted to be sure that if they make investments in carbon capture and storage, that we would provide incentives up front for making the huge investments that are needed. So to do that, we want to award [free] allowances [under the proposed cap-and-trade program], and provide bonus payments. We focused a lot on that. That was maybe the most difficult thing we did.

NJ: Are you negotiating on other coal-related issues? Are you considering whether the climate change bill should pre-empt the EPA from using the Clean Air Act to control greenhouse gases?

Carper: We had a discussion on that. I suspect there will be an amendment offered on that point. But our chair [Boxer] would prefer the bill we report out of committee leave the Clean Air Act essentially intact. The expectation is that on the floor there may be some attempt to change that.

NJ: Can Congress complete global warming legislation before the December United Nations negotiations on climate change in Copenhagen?

Carper: I think it's highly unlikely that we'll have a bill for the president to sign before Copenhagen. My own sense is that we need to show real progress, and my hope is that we will be in a position to do that.

They convene in Copenhagen on the 7th or 8th [of December]. I'm told by John Kerry that some of the more important sessions don't occur until almost a week later. The timeline that we're investing in health care continues to stretch out. I think it's important for us not to rush that.

I think we'll be in a position to move a bill out of the [environment] committee -- a good bill -- before Copenhagen. My hope is that before Copenhagen is over, we'll have been able to not only report a bill out of committee -- the other relevant committees will have reported their bills, Senator [Harry] Reid will have had a chance to merge the bills into one and begun or scheduled floor time in December to debate the package and to begin to amend it.

At the very least, when the folks are gathered at Copenhagen, I want them to know that all the relevant committees in the Senate have completed their work and an effort has begun to merge the bills into one.