New Senate climate bill coming tomorrow, with provisions to expand drilling, including offshore

"The Senate climate bill to be unveiled tomorrow will have provisions to expand domestic oil drilling, including revenue sharing for states that agree to allow more production off their shores," Darrell Samuelsohn reports for Greenwire, citing one of the bill's co-sponsors, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.).

"Lieberman said in an interview that the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill raises serious concerns about the safety of offshore energy production. Still, he said the climate bill that is set for rollout at a 1:30 p.m. EDT press conference tomorrow with Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) reflects their long-standing plans to grow the domestic supply of oil," Samuelshohn writes.

"We've made one slight alteration," Lieberman said. "And we expect we'll make some more alterations as this goes on based on what we've learned, particularly from [Interior Secretary Ken] Salazar's 30-day review about what more could be done to protect the safety." Lieberman declined to elaborate, telling Samuelsohn, "I've got to save some suspense for you."

Samuelsohn reports, "Kerry and Lieberman are expected to be joined by a large coalition of business, environment, faith and national security groups, which Lieberman said 'creates a new reality' in their uphill push for 60 votes. "We've got a really impressive set of networks in the environmental and business communities who are prepared to go to work to support this bill," the senator said. "And to spend a fair amount of money doing it. This is not a pyrrhic effort." (Read more; subscription may be required)

Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) told reporters, “I’d be surprised if it’d even come up for a vote. If it does come up for a vote I think it’s only because the Democrats have to show that they do have the votes or don’t have the votes to satisfy the advocates for cap and trade.” For more from Tom Steever of Brownfield Network, go here.
A short summary of the bill, obtained by the subscription-only service Environment and Energy News, says it would allow states to opt out of drilling within 75 miles of their shores and "veto drilling plans if they stand to suffer significant adverse impacts" from accidents; offer incentives for development of carbon-sequestration technology at coal-fired power plants; remove disencitives for use of natural gas at merchant power plants; apply only to the 7,500 sources that each generate at least 25,000 tons of carbon annually and delay coverage of industrial sources to 2016; and set floor and ceiling prices for carbon credits at $12 and $25 a ton, rising with inflation. As in the House bill, farmers would remain exempt from carbon-emissions controls and could earn carbon credits by reducing emissions, through a program run primarily by the Department of Agriculture.