By John Lyon
Arkansas News Bureau
LITTLE ROCK — The Senate is unlikely to pass comprehensive legislation addressing climate change in the next couple of years, though a less ambitious bill may be achievable, U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., said today.
“I think that the president would like to see a comprehensive energy bill and climate change bill come through the Senate. My view is there’s not enough votes to get that done this year, and quite frankly I’m not sure there will be next year,” Pryor said in a conference call with reporters.
Pryor spoke a day after President Obama addressed the nation on the Gulf oil spill and energy issues. Obama praised the House for passing “a strong and comprehensive energy and climate bill” last year, but he disappointed environmentalists by not asking the Senate to follow suit and not specifically mentioning cap and trade, greenhouse gases or climate change.
“If the president tries to push an energy package with climate change provisions in it, I think it’s a really hard sell,” Pryor said today. “I don’t think you’ll get any Republicans at all, or certainly not many. … My guess is, if it has climate change in it, it will not go anywhere in the Senate.”
The Associated Press today quoted Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., as saying Senate Republicans are unanimously opposed to a sweeping Senate climate bill by John Kerry, D-Mass., and Joe Lieberman, I-Conn.
Don Richardson of Clinton, director of the Arkansas Climate Awareness Project, which supports the Kerry-Lieberman bill, said Pryor is probably correct. He said that for the bill to pass, the leaders of key committees would need to support it — including Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., chairman of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee.
“Sen. Lincoln has told us she is interested in energy legislation, but she is not too interested in climate legislation,” Richardson said. “I think that is unfortunate.”
Lincoln issued a statement Tuesday night suggesting that a bill endorsed last year by a committee on which she serves could be “a starting point” for Senate action on energy issues.
“As we move forward, we must ensure that we are holding (oil company) BP accountable (for the Gulf spill), preventing future disasters, and steering our country toward a cleaner energy future. I am particularly focused on creating jobs for Arkansas in a new energy economy and reducing our dependence on foreign oil,” Lincoln said.
“The starting point for achieving these goals is the bipartisan energy bill I worked to pass out of the Senate Energy Committee last year that includes a number of initiatives to increase our renewable energy resources and energy efficiency,” she said.
The bill, dubbed the American Clean Energy Leadership Act, would promote increased use of energy sources such as wind, solar and biomass but would not tax or cap carbon emissions.
Richardson said a carbon tax or cap-and-trade system is essential to reduce carbon emissions and, unlike other proposals, it would pay for itself. He said he wished Obama would have been “more forceful in telling us what he’s willing to push and what he supports.”
Pryor said the bill Lincoln is touting had bipartisan support in committee and likely would get a better reception in the Senate than a more comprehensive bill. It would be better than doing nothing, he said.
“If you can’t hit the home run, let’s settle for the double,” he said.
