WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats on Thursday gave up plans to attempt to pass an energy bill that caps greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, abandoning a priority of President Barack Obama.
Obama had hoped to add a climate bill to the two biggest legislative successes of his presidency, a comprehensive health care bill and a broad reform of the U.S. banking and financial sector.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said no Republican was willing to back a comprehensive energy bill, a development he called “terribly disappointing.”
Democrats have been trying for more than a year to pass a plan that charges power plants, manufacturers and other large polluters for their heat-trapping carbon emissions, which contribute to global warming. The House voted 219-212 last year for a “cap and trade” plan featuring economic incentives to reduce carbon emissions from power plants, vehicles and other sources.
Republicans slammed the bill as a “national energy tax” and jobs killer, arguing that the costs would be passed on to consumers in the form of higher electricity bills and fuel costs that would lead manufacturers to take their factories overseas. Moderate House Democrats who voted for the bill, particularly freshmen from Republican-leaning districts, are among the GOP’s top takeover targets in the November election.
In recent weeks, Senate Democrats floated a more modest approach that would limit the carbon tax to the electricity sector. That plan, which drew support from the White House and words of encouragement from Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine, was never formally proposed. But it, too, failed to attract the 60 votes needed to advance it in the 100-member Senate.
Instead, Reid and other Democrats said they would focus on a narrower bill that responds to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and improves energy efficiency.
“We’ve always known from Day One that to pass comprehensive energy reform you’ve got to have 60 votes,” Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., said at a Capitol news conference with Reid and White House energy adviser Carol Browner. “As we stand here today we don’t have one Republican vote.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., had been negotiating with Kerry and Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., for months, but Graham withdrew his support in May, saying it was impossible to pass the legislation because of disagreements over offshore drilling and efforts by Democratic leaders to focus on immigration reform.
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