White House Steps Up Climate Efforts
By John M. Broder
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration and some Senate Democrats expressed fresh urgency on Tuesday about the need to address climate change and refashion the nation’s energy economy.
But they faced determined opposition from Republicans, new concerns from some Democrats and reminders of the financial, technological and political hurdles in remaking the way the nation produces and consumes power.
In a Senate hearing on a new climate change and energy bill and in coordinated appearances by President Obama and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., the administration promoted measures to cap greenhouse gas emissions and support new means of fueling homes and vehicles with far less carbon dioxide intensity. Mr. Obama appeared at a solar energy installation in Florida and Mr. Biden at an auto plant in Delaware that will produce electric vehicles, talking about the potential of alternative energy to create jobs.
On Capitol Hill, five senior administration officials appeared before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee to speak in support of a bill to address global warming and encourage development of nonpolluting energy sources. They said such measures were important not only to the environment but to the nation’s economic competitiveness.
“When the starting gun sounded on the clean energy race, the United States stumbled,” Energy Secretary Steven Chu told the Senate panel, saying that spending on green energy technology in China and several European nations was far outstripping that of the United States. “But I remain confident that we can make up the ground.”
He added, “When we gear up our research and production of clean energy technologies, we can still surpass any other country.”
The climate change measure, sponsored by Senators John Kerry of Massachusetts and Barbara Boxer of California, both Democrats, aims to cap emissions of the gases linked to the warming of the planet by setting up a program under which industries can buy and sell emissions permits.
The measure also provides a variety of incentives for new energy technology, including billions of dollars in subsidies for research on capturing and storing carbon dioxide emissions from power plants.
Republicans on the committee dismissed the bill as an overly complex one that will harm the economy, kill jobs and favor some parts of the country over others. Democrats generally defended it as a market-based approach to a serious environmental problem that will create jobs by spurring energy innovation.
Senator Max Baucus, the Montana Democrat who is the second-ranking member of the environment committee and chairman of the Finance Committee, warned his fellow Democrats that the Kerry-Boxer bill went too far and could end up delaying any action on global warming for months or years.
“The legislation before us today is about our economy,” Mr. Baucus told the committee. “Montana, with our resource-based agriculture and tourism economies, cannot afford the unmitigated impacts of climate change. But we also cannot afford the unmitigated effects of climate change legislation.”
He said the bill’s target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent below 2005 levels was too ambitious. He criticized the measure’s failure to limit the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to impose additional regulations on carbon dioxide emissions beyond those in the bill.
And he warned Senator Boxer against using her committee’s 12-to-7 Democratic majority to pass a bill without some support from moderate Republicans and Democrats.
“We could build that consensus here in this committee,” Mr. Baucus said. “If we don’t, we risk wasting another month, another year, another Congress without taking a step forward into our future.”
Senator George V. Voinovich of Ohio, considered by some a potential Republican vote for climate change legislation, also said the committee was moving too quickly on a complex bill that few understand.
“Why are we trying to jam down this legislation now?” asked Mr. Voinovich, who is retiring at the end of next year. “Wouldn’t it be smarter to take our time and do it right?”
In Arcadia, Fla., Mr. Obama stood in the midst of the nation’s largest solar power generation array to highlight $3.4 billion in stimulus spending for projects to modernize the electric grid through projects across the country.
“At this moment, there’s something big happening in America, when it comes to creating a clean-energy economy,” Mr. Obama said. “But getting there will take a few more days like this one, and more projects like this one.”
Jeff Zeleny contributed reporting from Arcadia, Fla., and David Stout from Washington.
