Collins Open to Continuing Climate Change Chat
June 28, 2010CQ Today Online News
By Alan K. Ota, CQ Staff
Sen. Susan Collins of Maine says she hopes to finish a conversation she had with President Obama three months ago about what she hopes is their shared interest in capping carbon emissions and distributing to consumers the revenue from the sale of emissions allowances.
Of the half-dozen Senate Republicans invited to the White House to discuss climate change last week, Collins has emerged as perhaps the most likely backer of climate change legislation. She and Democrat Maria Cantwell of Washington state have worked out a bipartisan cap-and-dividend approach to limiting carbon emissions.
The other Republican senators invited to last week’s session, which was later postponed and rescheduled for Tuesday, were Conference Chairman Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Olympia J. Snowe of Maine, Richard G. Lugar of Indiana, George LeMieux of Florida and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.
Collins said she would like to continue a chat she had with Obama on March 9, the last time he convened a bipartisan group of lawmakers to discuss global warming. Then, the White House and Democratic leaders were focused on Graham as a possible cosponsor of a bill being developed by Democrat John Kerry of Massachusetts and independent Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut. But Graham has since dropped out of the Kerry-Lieberman talks, and Democrats know that some Republican support will be needed to pass climate change legislation in the Senate.
Collins and Cantwell say they hope Obama will take a look at their proposal (S 2877), which they describe as the only bipartisan approach on climate change. Obama was expected to meet with lawmakers to discuss climate change sometime this week, but the schedule is uncertain after the death of Democratic Sen. Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia.
The Collins-Cantwell bill would cap emissions of greenhouse gases without creating a carbon-trading market and would distribute 75 percent of the resulting revenue back to consumers to offset higher utilities bills.
In March, Collins outlined her bill’s provisions. She said the president noted that he had discussed the idea of a rebate during his presidential campaign. “That was news to me. And I was glad to hear that, although he subsequently hasn’t followed up on that,” Collins said.
Although she has not talked with Obama directly since the March 9 meeting, Collins said she has been in regular contact about energy and other issues with Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s chief of staff.
Source: CQ Today Online News
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