Republicans stack up 150+ amendments for Lieberman-Warner markup
Posted on December 5th, 2007By Darren Samuelsohn
E&E News: Senate Republicans plan to offer more than 150 amendments during today’s Environment and Public Works Committee markup on a major global warming bill.
The GOP amendments include proposals to mandate a vast expansion in U.S. nuclear power and natural gas production that equals the surge in demand expected from a strict new climate law.
Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) drafted the most amendments of any Republican at 46, though he said in an interview he expected to focus on only about a dozen. Republican Sens. James Inhofe of Oklahoma, George Voinovich of Ohio, David Vitter of Louisiana and Kit Bond of Missouri have also loaded up the agenda with more than a dozen amendments each.
Inhofe and his top aides predicted passage for the overall bill, which seeks about a 63 percent cut in heat-trapping emissions over the next four decades.
“The suspense tomorrow is not going to be whether or not this bill clears the committee,” Inhofe’s GOP staff director, Andrew Wheeler, told reporters. “The suspense will be on how individual members vote on individual amendments.”
Wheeler said he expected the EPW Committee markup to conclude tomorrow night, assuming there are 10 lawmakers on hand to form a quorum. And he said Republicans would likely seek votes on between 20 and 50 of their amendments, though he acknowledged that number could also go higher.
Dem amendments
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) has set aside all day today and tomorrow for the climate markup.
At the start of tomorrow’s session, Boxer will unveil a manager’s amendment that includes several technical corrections compared with an earlier version circulated last week. Overall, the climate bill still seeks to set mandatory limits on the six primary greenhouse gases produced by about three-quarters of the U.S. economy.
Democrats have drafted about 30 amendments of their own that may be offered to the bill originally written by Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and John Warner (R-Va.).
Atop the list of Democratic amendments is a proposal from Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) that would strike the free distribution of emission allowances to coal-fired power plants, petroleum refiners and other industrial plants. Instead, Clinton would require industry to compete for the emission credits in an auction.
Friends of the Earth circulated Clinton’s amendment and praised the Democratic presidential candidate for her position.
“Sen. Clinton is now leading the fight to stop Congress from handing half a trillion dollars to corporate polluters,” Friends of the Earth President Brent Blackwelder said. “We strongly endorse the Clinton amendments to the Lieberman-Warner bill and urge senators to follow her lead. Special interest giveaways are not the solution to global warming.”
Boxer has told reporters she supports auctioning off credits in a manner similar to the Clinton amendment, but the chairwoman also has acknowledged she lacks the votes to pass such a plan.
Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) has drafted four amendments to the Lieberman-Warner bill, including one that would set mandatory limits on power plant emissions of nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide and mercury. He also has prepared language that would change the system for distributing emission credits to favor natural gas and nuclear power plants over coal. And Carper hopes to offer an amendment that promotes recycling.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who voted against the climate bill in subcommittee, wrote nine amendments for the markup. One of Sanders’ amendments would require U.S. EPA to write rules that force even stronger emission reductions in 2050. He also has an amendment that would limit the amount of offsets that a company can use to comply with a new U.S. climate law.
Natural gas, nuke amendments in play
Republicans have plans to offer several amendments aimed at expanding U.S. energy production, including natural gas and nuclear power.
One of Inhofe’s top amendments would require EPA and the Interior and Energy departments to monitor natural gas demand following enactment of the climate bill. If demand increases, the U.S. government would offer leases for a corresponding amount of new natural gas production.
Another Inhofe amendment would require more nuclear power plants coming onto the energy grid between 2016 and 2030 — otherwise the bill’s greenhouse gas emission limits would be suspended. The Lieberman-Warner bill is expected to boost U.S. nuclear capacity even without specific language in it as written, but an Inhofe aide said the amendment would guarantee that new nuclear plants get built.
“If we get delayed, the cap gets delayed also,” the aide explained. “It tries to track them together.”
Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) also plans three nuclear amendments packaged into one title.
In an interview, Isakson said it was important to have a “comprehensive” provision to address nuclear and not just the “piecemeal approach” that the bill is currently offering.
“My big thing on this whole deal is to try to elevate nuclear energy realistically and practically as a component part of our arsenal in the 21st century, because you are not going to reduce carbon without nuclear,” Isakson said.
Isakson’s office didn’t release a copy of his amendments, but a draft obtained last week by E&E Daily appeared aimed at changing the Energy Policy Act of 2005 to expand federally backed nuclear insurance programs and loan guarantee provisions.
The draft Isakson amendments would speed up the schedule for granting new nuclear reactor licenses and improve confidence in waste storage by creating voluntary spent-fuel storage sites.
Isakson’s nuclear amendments would also authorize more than $40 million for a federal interagency working group charged with increasing domestic nuclear manufacturing and labor training. And it would increase tax credits for nuclear manufacturing and construction.
Isakson said most of the committee Republicans generally supported the idea of broader nuclear power production, but he didn’t know if his amendments would pass. The Georgia Republican said he hoped to win Carper’s vote — a key hurdle that could give him a majority.
Carper declined comment on Isakson’s amendment except to say he hopes the Lieberman-Warner bill would offer incentives for both renewables and nuclear power.
Click here for Boxer’s manager’s amendment.
Click here for Boxer’s memo explaining changes to the bill.
Click here for Boxer’s summary of the manager’s amendment.
Click here for a line-by-line by comparison of the new legislation.
Click here for Inhofe’s natural gas amendment.
Click here for Inhofe’s nuclear amendment.
Click here for Inhofe’s auto industry amendment.
Click here for Sanders’ emission reduction target amendment.
Click here for Sanders’ scientific lookback amendment.
Click here for Sanders’ offsets amendment.
Click here for an overview of Sanders’ nine amendments.