Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Obama presses for price on carbon in energy bill
US President Barack Obama urged lawmakers to put a price on carbon pollution in a Senate energy bill on Tuesday at a White House meeting that one senator called a "breakthrough" for the legislation.
Senator Joseph Lieberman, an independent who wrote the bill with Democrat John Kerry, said previously-reluctant senators at the meeting said they would work with Kerry and him and expressed willingness to discuss "limited forms" of carbon pricing.
Putting a price on carbon means requiring companies to pay for the earth-warming carbon dioxide emissions they produce.
"The president was very clear about putting a price on carbon and limiting greenhouse gas emissions," Kerry told reporters after the meeting.
Obama has tried to harness public anger over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill to build support for a bill that would increase US production of renewable fuels and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
But with congressional elections looming in November, chances that the controversial legislation will pass this year are considered by experts to be slim.
Lieberman said the two senators would reach out to Republicans and Democrats who showed a willingness to compromise on the bill.
"Some of our colleagues, who up until this time have been at least publicly reluctant about the 'polluter pays, putting a price on carbon pollution' (principle), said that they would be willing to discuss limited forms of doing that in this bill," Lieberman said.
"To me that's a breakthrough that Senator Kerry and I want to begin to take advantage of," he said.
Kerry said they were willing to "scale back" their legislation to find support to advance the bill, but he made it clear that both the energy and climate change aspects of the legislation would have to be included.
"We're prepared to compromise further and we are looking for some Republicans and perhaps even some members of our own caucus who will meet us at that place of compromise," Kerry said.
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