Specter wants protections for industry in climate bill

Daniel Malloy September 17, 2009

Just last month, Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., told the Netroots Nation conference in Pittsburgh that he would support the Democrats' climate change legislation. A Senate bill has not yet been introduced after the House narrowly passed the controversial cap-and-trade bill over the summer, but Mr. Specter signed a letter to President Barack Obama's energy czar last week, along with four of his colleagues, asking for close study of how its costs would affect manufacturing -- including the steel industry. The letter, dated Sept. 11, was made public for the first time today.

"Some industries also claim that despite the output-based rebate, their sectors will still be substantially impacted by the cap-and-trade proposal as a whole," Sen. Specter wrote, along with Sens. Evan Bayh, D-Ind.; Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich; Claire McCaskill, D-Mo.; and Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, wrote to Carol Browner, Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change. "We, however, do not possess the technical capacity to evaluate these claims. Thus, we request that you create a process by which we can direct industrial firms to technical experts within the Administration to evaluate their concerns."

The senators are careful to say that this is not a roadblock: "We do not want this request to delay our leadership's desired schedule on climate change legislation. Given the scarcity of time, we therefore see an immediate need to begin work on this request."

All five senators come from major manufacturing states, which explains their concern over the economic hit. Mr. Specter, facing a primary challenge from left-leaning Rep. Joe Sestak, D-Delaware County, has worked to appease environmentalists on this subject -- and said he took a post on the Environment and Public Works Committee because of this bill. He hasn't backed off his support yet -- and there's no bill for him to support or reject yet. But it will be interesting to watch if Mr. Specter walks back on cap-and-trade because of economic concerns that Republicans -- and a few Democrats, including Jason Altmire, D-McCandless -- have loudly trumpeted.

(That's not today's only Specter news: PG+ subscribers can read my take on his floor speech this morning on Afghanistan.)