Political Roundup: Can a Senate workhorse push an energy bill out of neutral?
Posted July 2, 2010 at 9:56 am 
Filed in: As the week began, the prospects of an energy bill seemed contingent upon a bipartisan meeting of Senators Tuesday. By Friday, this meeting was largely forgotten and news around Washington centered on a new player in the energy debate. In review:
Tuesday’s bipartisan meeting seemed only to reinforce an already present climate stalemate. John Broder of the NY Times summed it up well:
“Democrats continued to insist on putting some sort of price on greenhouse gas emissions; Republicans continued to insist that to do so would be to impose a tax that would smother the economy. ‘We have to take a national energy tax off the table,’ said Senator Lamar Alexander, Republican of Tennessee. ‘There is no energy tax,’ said Senator John Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, sponsor of a bill that would significantly raise the cost of greenhouse gas pollution.”
On the other hand, the president remained confident. The White House’s official statement after the meeting read:
“The President said that there was a strong foundation and consensus on some key policies and the President urged the Senators to come together based on that foundation. There was agreement on the sense of urgency required to move forward with legislation and the President is confident that we will be able to get something done this year.”
With seemingly little progress towards an actual agreement, many news outlooks began to focus on the energy debate’s newest game changer – except he isn’t new at all. Attention turned to Senator Jeff Bingaman, chairman of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. With little fanfare, Bingaman now seems poised to add a much needed element to the energy debate – a dose of reality. Politico reports:
“Here’s what Bingaman does do: He slowly, carefully and methodically hammers out pragmatic, detailed energy legislation with Republican partners in long, dull markups that don’t draw attention but do produce solid pieces of legislation forged in the order of the committee process.”
On Wednesday, E&E PM reported a possible energy coup, this time with Bingaman at the center:
“Sens. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) are emerging as key players in a possible compromise climate and energy package that could represent the Senate’s best chance at capping greenhouse gas emissions this year.”
Back to Politico, describing Bingaman’s possible strategy:
“As for the shape of that final package, it appears increasingly possible that Democrats and moderate Republicans will coalesce around a mandate increasing renewable electricity and clean technology development. That’s the bill that Bingaman hammered out through a 12-week Energy and Natural Resources Committee markup last spring, working closely with the committee’s ranking Republican, Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski. The markup drew little attention at the time, but it produced a bill that would advance President Barack Obama’s clean energy goals and has already won “yes” votes from four Republicans and two moderate Democrats who had been expected to vote “no” on Kerry’s bill.”
Just as before, Bingaman and Snowe’s compromise package was not widely hailed as a debate clincher; however, Bingaman himself believes that energy needs to move quickly in order to succeed. Stephen Power of the Wall Street Journal reports:
“Bingaman, chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, warned his colleagues against assuming they can pass a bill before the election with popular items – such as incentives for wind and solar power and electric cars – and then add more controversial provisions, such as a cap on carbon emissions, in a conference committee with the House after the election…. ‘If we’re going to get legislation to the president for signature in this Congress, I think the Senate’s going to have to act before the August recess.’”
As head of the Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee, Bingaman does, in many ways, hold the keys to our energy future. With the August recess quickly approaching, we’ll now see if he can take the wheel and shepherd an energy bill through the Senate in a bipartisan, thoughtful manner much like he did with the Committee’s energy bill process.
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