subject: No Climate Bill This Year [print this page] WASHINGTON Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has closed the door on climate legislation this year, The Hill reports. The senator said that the next Congress should look at climate bills in a "piecemeal" fashion with a focus on electric power plants instead of a bigger and more general proposal.
"I think we are looking to a time when we can get part of this done. We can't get everything done at once," said Reid, while acknowledging that the legislation won't be advancing this year.
But the senator expressed his appreciation for the negotiations among some lawmakers to cap carbon from utilities. "We have got to be able to suck it up and say I may not get all I want," said Reid during an energy conference at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. "We are not going to be able, as much as people want, to have a price on all carbon."
Last summer, the House passed a wide-ranging climate and energy measure that would have limited emissions in many economic sectors, but no version of that bill even came close to being approved in the Senate. Reid jettisoned the climate bill prior to the August break, saying it fell short of 60 votes.
However, Reid said earlier this week that he felt sure the Senate would finish work on an energy bill called "Homestar," that has conditions to increase use of natural gas-powered trucks and incentives for home energy efficiency retrofits. "Homestar is a program that is so simple and yet so meaningful," he said, adding that the measure would save consumers money on home energy and create a quarter of a million jobs.
