Friday, May 14, 2010 2:40 PM
Baucus Faces Pressure On Cantwell-Collins
By Amy Harder, NationalJournal.com
Finance Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., is facing pressure from interest groups to take up the climate and energy bill sponsored by Sens. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Susan Collins, R-Maine. That's despite the Senate's current focus on the bill unveiled Wednesday by Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Joe Lieberman, I/D-Conn.
The chances of either piece of legislation coming before the panel any time soon appear slim.
Three letters have been sent to the panel in the past few weeks requesting Baucus schedule a hearing on the "cap-and-dividend" bill Cantwell and Collins introduced last December. AARP sent a letter Wednesday and two coalitions of environmental groups -- including Friends of the Earth, Center for Biological Diversity and the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy -- sent two letters toward the end of last month.
Wednesday evening, Baucus deflected questions as to when or whether he would take up either the Kerry-Lieberman or Cantwell-Collins bill. "We need to see how much impetus it has," Baucus told NationalJournal.com, referring to the Kerry-Lieberman legislation, the American Power Act. "We need to make a judgment. There's only so many things I can do."
When asked whether his committee would consider the Cantwell-Collins bill, Baucus responded that he "doesn't know yet." A requested for further comment from the committee was not returned.
A representative from AARP said they had not heard back from the committee and experts from the Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Earth and the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy said they had not heard back either.
"The environmental community is not wedded to one single approach," said Ben Schreiber, a climate energy tax analyst at Friends of the Earth. "And if KGL was inadequate we would be looking for other alternatives." Schreiber said that before the American Power Act was announced, and Friends of the Earth has since issued a statement denouncing that bill.
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