Democrats to revive climate bill during election season

Senate majority leader Harry Reid said yesterday that he will attempt to revive the stalled climate and energy bill ahead of November's mid-term elections and is looking to secure Republican support in order to add a Renewable Electricity Standard (RES) to the controversial legislation.

Speaking in a teleconference with reporters, Reid said he remained committed to salvaging energy legislation this year and was keen to beef up the version of the bill currently before the Senate.

Democrats were forced to abandon plans for a wide-ranging climate bill ahead of the August recess, ditching proposals put forward by senators John Kerry and Joe Lieberman that would have seen a national emissions trading scheme introduced that had repeatedly failed to secure the 60 votes needed to pass through the Senate.

Reid instead presented a watered-down version of the bill based on new regulations governing offshore oil drilling and featuring incentives for domestic energy efficiency programmes and green cars. However, the bill was slammed by environmentalists for failing to cap greenhouse gas emissions and ditching proposals for an RES that would require utilities to source an increasing proportion of electricity from renewable sources.

Even this watered-down bill is expected to face fierce opposition when the Senate reconvenes on 13 September as Republicans step up their attacks on the Democrats ahead of the November mid-term elections.

However, Reid signalled yesterday that he is still working to re-introduce the RES to the bill, insisting that it is "absolutely" in the running for inclusion in the final bill.

He said that two unnamed Republican senators had expressed an interest in supporting the RES, adding that he was "going to tie them down a little more closely" within the next week.

He added that Democrats would continue to work on the bill in the run-up to the mid-term elections, noting that "maybe, after the elections, we can get some more Republicans to work with us."

"We are bound to come back on a lame duck and we are going to continue working on it," he added. "We will see if we can come up with something before the end of the year."

A handful of Republican senators such as Sam Brownback and Lindsey Graham have said they understand the need to curb greenhouse gas emissions, but opposed the Democrat bill on economic grounds.

The Democrats remain hopeful that they can now secure the votes needed to pass an energy bill by focusing more on incentives rather than demanding emissions legislation.

Meanwhile, US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator Lisa Jackson has attempted to reassure legislators concerned about the impact of new emission rules from the agency, insisting over the weekend that they will have a minimal impact on the economy.

The EPA is poised to begin regulating emissions from power plants and industrial sites from next year, despite ongoing legal challenges against its right to regulate greenhouse emissions.

"They [the rules] will be modest, each and every one, because business needs time to understand the regulations that are coming at them," Jackson told National Public Radio in an interview. "There won't be any huge shocks to the system."