Four Democratic senators are balking at passing a bill limiting greenhouse gas emissions this year, Bloomberg reports. North Dakotans Byron Dorgan and Kent Conrad, along with Blanche Lincoln (Ark.) and Ben Nelson (Nebr.) want cap-and-trade provisions stripped from the Senate energy bill, allowing a separate vote on a bill featuring new subsidies for renewables but no limits on greenhouse gases. Dow Chemical lobbyist Peter Molinaro says such a move would likely sink the “climate-change” measure. (Dow, by the way, backs cap-and-tax.)
?Doing these energy provisions by themselves might make it
more difficult to move the cap-and-trade legislation,? said
Molinaro, who is based in Washington. ?In this town if you
split two measures, usually the second thing never gets done.?
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he would not allow the full Senate to vote on a stripped-down bill. But unless Reid can pull four Republicans to his side, he won’t be able to get a 60-vote majority to force a vote on a bill including both components.
