Electric utilities looking for emissions deal

Tom Kuhn, president of the Edison Electric Institute, told POLITICO that he has had informal talks about a deal for power companies with White House energy adviser Carol Browner, who brokered the closed-door car deal, and EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson. “But no in-depth discussions yet,” he said.

About a "car deal" for utilities, Politico reported Glenn English, the president of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association and a former Oklahoma Democratic congressman as saying,

“We may be dreaming, I don’t know.”

So as we've been saying, just because "cap-and-trade" is dead, that does not mean that the push for climate legislation is also dead. Such advocacy is, in fact, alive and kicking — and it's a real threat because:

• While congressional Republicans can be counted on to oppose "cap-and-trade," it's not at all clear what many will do if cap-and-trade is re-branded as, say, "clean energy" or "kumbaya energy"; and
• Electric utilities and renewable energy interests will no doubt throw all sort of campaign cash at Republicans looking to be re-elected in 2012.

Keep in mind that the conventional wisdom in January 2009 was that cap-and-trade was a done deal given a popular new Democrat president and Democrat-controlled Congress. Nevertheless, cap-and-trade failed. Now, conventional wisdom is that nothing like cap-and-trade could ever get through a tea party-infused GOP-controlled House. Somewhat disturbing in the Politico report is this quote from an unidentified "senior House GOP aide close to the Energy and Commerce Committee":

"I don’t think a deal between industry, the utilities and the Obama administration that most likely would lead to higher utility prices for the American consumer is a deal that House Republicans would be comfortable with. But certainly, we’d have to take a look before making that determination." [Emphasis added]

Stay tuned…