Senators Kerry, Graham and Lieberman continue to work on the framework for a bipartisan climate and energy bill, and hope to table a draft climate and energy proposal in the Senate before the spring recess begins at the end of March. The Senators are actively engaging with industry to craft a business-friendly solution, and their efforts are being bolstered by strong support from the White House. President Obama hosted over a dozen Democratic and Republican Senators at the White House on March 9th in the hopes of building consensus around Congressional action, re-stating his belief that climate and energy legislation is needed to help revitalize the US economy.

While some Senators (including some Democrats) are advocating for an energy-only bill, others, such as Republican Senator Graham argue that energy independence will not be possible “in a meaningful way” until there is a price on carbon. A number of measures are being considered to rally bipartisan support around pricing carbon, most notably support for increased offshore drilling, and incentives for nuclear power production. A sector-based approach to climate regulation may also emerge. Initial caps on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions may be limited to power plants, and slowly expanded to include other industrial sectors. A separate tax on the carbon content of transportation fuels may provide an alternative to capping emissions resulting from the combustion of transportation fuels, as is the case in Waxman Markey legislation passed by the House last June.

By Eva Berton, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)