Reid Struggling With Energy Bill Deadline, Democrats Say

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is struggling to meet a self-imposed deadline for passing energy legislation, his fellow Democrats say, and they expressed doubt the measure could be approved before Congress takes its month- long August recess.

Reid previously said he was close to announcing the bill’s details and aimed to open Senate debate on the measure next week. During Senate Democrats’ weekly luncheon yesterday on Capitol Hill, though, lawmakers said Reid told them the bill remained far from finished.

“Frankly, I’m having trouble with this one,” Senator Joseph Lieberman, a Connecticut independent who caucuses with the Democrats, quoted Reid as saying

. Reid didn’t confirm the comment to reporters after the lunch and was noncommittal about the measure’s timing. He said he would make a decision about that “in the near future,” and that he plans to meet with Senate Democrats tomorrow for talks on the matter.

“We’re really not quite where I can determine what I think is best for the caucus” in terms of proceeding on the bill, he said.

The bill Reid is drafting is a stripped-down version of legislation that passed the House last year and stalled in the Senate. President Barack Obama continues to press Congress to pass an energy bill that, among other provisions, addresses issues raised by the BP Plc oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. As the November elections approach, though, the prospects for passing major legislation through Congress typically decrease.

Lieberman Plan

Lieberman, co-author of a plan to cap carbon dioxide emissions from power plants that may be included in Reid’s bill, said Democrats should consider delaying a vote on the legislation rather than “force ourselves to be constrained by an artificial schedule.”

Lieberman said he met yesterday with board members of the Edison Electric Institute, a Washington-based group that represents American Electric Power Co., Southern Co. and other utility companies, and they “pleaded for more time” to negotiate the measure’s details.

Last week, Reid told reporters he had assembled a “rough draft” of a bill that would address offshore oil and gas drilling, “clean energy” production, fuel savings and energy- related tax incentives.

Reid said the bill may also require cuts in carbon dioxide and other pollution from power plants. Much of the package draws from legislation already approved by Senate committees.

Seeking Republicans

Yesterday, Reid told reporters he’s still trying to find “two or three” Republicans who would agree to back such a bill. Their support is necessary to overcome the prospect of the Republican Senate leadership stalling action on the measure.

Some Republicans have said they were unhappy with Reid’s plan to move the legislation through the Senate before the August recess.

“He’s waiting until we have like two or three days to tackle a subject that usually takes seven or eight weeks,” said Senator Lamar Alexander, a Tennessee Republican.

The timing question also remains unsettled among Democrats, who are “still having a debate and lively discussion” on what the bill should include, Senator Tom Udall, a New Mexico Democrat, said in an interview.

Whether to require cuts in greenhouse gas emissions that scientists have linked to climate change remains a sticking point among Democrats. Lieberman and Senator John Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat, are pressing Reid to add their plan for such cuts to the legislation.

Scaled-Back Plan

Kerry and Lieberman’s plan would scale back earlier cap- and-trade systems, in which companies would buy and sell a declining number of carbon dioxide pollution rights, that would cover most of the U.S. economy. Their proposal would apply to the power plants that produce roughly one-third of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.

Some Democrats, including West Virginia’s Jay Rockefeller, Iowa’s Tom Harkin and Arkansas’ Mark Pryor, doubt a cap-and- trade plan can pass. The proposal is a “pretty tough sell,” Senator Evan Bayh, an Indiana Democrat, told reporters.

Such a plan “would weigh on some states heavier than others” due to different levels of coal-fired electricity in different regions, Bayh said. Indiana generates more than 90 percent of its electricity from coal, according to Energy Information Administration data. In Lieberman’s Connecticut, coal fuels less than 5 percent of electricity generation.

Lieberman, who has said he would like to see debate on an energy bill continue into September, said lawmakers should consider dealing with the question of carbon dioxide limits between November’s election and the January swearing-in of new members of Congress.

“I know there’s a certain awkwardness in a lame-duck session, but these are big and important issues,” he said.