Senator Specter Comments on Kerry-Boxer Climate Change Bill

Washington, D.C. -- September 30, 2009 -- Today, Senator Arlen Specter (D-Pa.), member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, made the following comments regarding the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act introduced today by Senators Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and John Kerry (D-Mass.):

“I support legislation to create clean domestic energy and address climate change in a way that is economically responsible, environmentally effective, and encourages action by other countries to achieve these goals. I believe the Kerry-Boxer bill can be structured, with Committee and floor amendments, to meet these goals subject to the following considerations:

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• A modified price collar should be structured, linked to a strategic pool of allowances, which will give greater price certainty than the House bill while maintaining the emissions cap.
• Creating the right combination of incentives and mandates to ensure the commercial deployment of carbon capture and sequestration technology.
o This includes advance payments of bonus allowances for qualifying projects (coal plants with the new technology) in order to protect consumers from electricity rate increases associated with the cost of building these new plants.
• The inclusion of adequate allowances to protect steel and other energy-intensive manufacturing from detrimental foreign competitiveness impacts.
• The inclusion of provisions based on the CLEAN-TEA bill, which will reduce greenhouse gas emissions from transportation.
• The inclusion of appropriate incentives for natural gas, while recognizing that a price on carbon is itself an incentive to natural gas.”

Senator Specter has long been concerned about the threats posed by global climate change and requested his assignment to the Environment and Public Works Committee for the 111th Congress in order to work on climate change legislation.

In 2007 Senator Specter demonstrated his commitment to seek climate policy solutions when he and Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) co-sponsored the Bingaman-Specter Low Carbon Economy Act of 2007. The legislation would have imposed a mandatory cap-and-trade system to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and enjoyed bipartisan support from Senators, as well as industry and labor.

As a member of the EPW Committee, Senator Specter is working with colleagues to build consensus on crucial aspects of climate legislation. In August, he signed a letter with nine other senators to President Obama, emphasizing the importance of border measures and allowance allocation in preventing negative competitiveness impacts on steel and other manufacturing from countries which do not adopt policies to slow or reduce greenhouse gas emissions. He collaborated on a legislative recommendation to ensure the successful commercial deployment of carbon capture and sequestration. Recognizing the potential for natural gas to aid in the transition to a low-carbon economy, as well as the jobs and revenue that development of the Marcellus Shale could provide for Pennsylvania, Senator Specter co-signed a bipartisan letter to Chairman Boxer asking for appropriate incentives for the fuel in any climate legislation. Senator Specter is also leading an effort, with Senator Evan Bayh (D-IN), to work with the Administration to produce firm data on which energy-intensive, trade-exposed industries will be eligible for allowances to protect them from foreign competitiveness impacts.

Source: Senator Arlen Specter