Political Roundup: Lugar, Murkowski and Reid, Oh My!
Posted June 11, 2010 at 10:38 am 
Filed in: It was an important week in Washington in terms of energy news, starting with Senator Lugar’s official announcement of his energy legislation on Wednesday, the Practical Energy and Climate Plan, S. 3464. Soon after, Senator Lindsey Graham finalized his expected withdrawal from the American Power Act by putting his full support behind Senator Lugar’s bill. In The Hill, Senator Graham states, “Senator Lugar has found a way forward that I think will be attractive to the business community, to Democrats and Republicans alike, and I would like to be his partner and see if we can find common ground with other people like Sens. Kerry and Lieberman who are interested in the same goals”
The biggest headlines of the week came one day later as the Senate voted on the Murkowski Resolution, or more technically, the, “Motion to Proceed to S.J. Res. 26; A joint resolution disapproving a rule submitted by the Environmental Protection Agency relating to the endangerment finding and the cause or contribute findings for greenhouse gases under section 202(a) of the Clean Air Act.” With the resolution on the table, both parties took the opportunity to swing political jabs at one another. In The Hill, Susan Collins (R-Maine), “said a ‘better way forward’ is for Congress to pass a comprehensive climate plan. ‘It is Congress’s job, not [that of] the EPA, to decide how best to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.’” In the same article, Barbara Boxer states, “Big Oil backs the Murkowski resolution. So whose side are we on?” When the votes were tallied, the resolution failed by a 53-47 margin, with all 41 Republicans and 6 Democrats supporting the measure. With the favorable vote, President Obama was spared the necessity to use his veto, which he had threatened to do earlier in the week in the NY Times.
Not to be outdone by all the political posturing, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid closed the week by clarifying his plan to carefully word any energy future legislation in E&E, “We don’t use the word ‘cap and trade. That’s something that’s been deleted from my dictionary. Carbon pricing is the right term.” Regardless of the choice of vocabulary, with the Murkowski Resolution behind us, we eagerly await less rhetoric and more substantial movement towards a bipartisan energy agreement in the upcoming weeks.
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