Wednesday, March 10, 2010 11:34 AM
Dorgan May Support Rockefeller Bill
By Amy Harder, NationalJournal.com
Sen. Byron Dorgan may become the first co-sponsor of legislation that would impose a two-year delay on EPA emissions regulation.
"I might. I'm looking at it. I think it's a reasonable thing to do," the North Dakota Democrat told reporters this morning after speaking at an energy efficiency conference on the Hill.
Sen. Jay Rockefeller's bill would delay for two years EPA's regulation of greenhouse gas emissions from stationary sources. The West Virginia Democrat sent a letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson last month expressing concerns about the regulations' economic impact. Seven coal-state Democrats signed on; Dorgan wasn't one of them.
Dorgan, who is retiring after this year, reiterated his prediction that Congress will not pass a climate change bill this year and said the Senate should focus on the energy-only bill the Energy and Natural Resources Committee approved last spring. "We have been waiting for many, many months with an energy bill that I also think is good for the country," said Dorgan, the second-ranking Democrat on ENR. "Waiting because those who want it be a comprehensive bill including climate change don't want us to deal with energy alone."
Aside from the benefits that bill would have on the economy and environment, Dorgan said, it could also serve as an avenue for an emissions cap. "The best way to evaluate all of this is to bring the ENR bill to the floor of the Senate and have whatever group is working on something else offer us an amendment," Dorgan said. "If they have the 60 votes for an amendment for a cap-and-trade, let them offer that. It gets bolted on the side of the ENR bill."
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