Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is now walking back his statements from earlier this morning, which cast serious doubt on the prospects of the Senate addressing climate change.
“To the senator’s knowledge, no decisions have been made yet on the floor strategy for legislation addressing the nation’s urgent energy challenges, nor is it his decision to make,” says Schumer’s spokesman Brian Fallon. “Senator Schumer speculated on one procedural option, but make no mistake: he believes climate change legislation is vital to our nation’s energy security and looks forward to voting for it. He is working with his colleagues to get the strongest, most comprehensive bill possible and looks forward to discussions with the rest of the leadership later this week on how to best move forward.”
Schumer made a splash this morning when he predicted that forthcoming energy legislation would not include a component to cap and price global warming pollution. His statement wasn’t the first indication that Senate Democrats might eschew climate legislation this Congress, but it was one of the most stark.
Climate legislation supporters have long believed that the best hope for passing legislation in the Senate is to pepper it with goodies–incentives for coal and oil state senators, and for nuclear energy production–to entice swing votes to support a comprehensive bill. If Harry Reid moves an energy-only bill, he’ll remove any incentive those members might otherwise have to vote for capping and pricing carbon.
