The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee this week will begin the task of drafting climate and energy legislation, picking up where the House left off after passing the American Clean Energy and Security Act at the end of June.
A hearing called for Tuesday will look at different “legislative tools” for addressing climate change. Scheduled to testify are the Obama administration’s top enviromental policymakers: Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. A second panel includes Dow Chemical Vice President of Energy Rich Wells; Braddock, Pa., Mayor John Fetterman (of badass green fame); Haley Barbour, the Republican governor of Mississippi; and David Hawkins, director of the Climate Center at the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Committee Chair Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) has said she intends for her committee to approve legislation by early August, giving the panel a short time frame to make major decisions about what their plan will look like. Boxer has indicated previously that she will use the ACES bill (aka Waxman-Markey) as a framework. Green groups hope the Senate panel will be able to strengthen some provisions of the bill in the coming weeks.
I’ll be covering the hearing live via Twitter starting at 10:00 a.m. ET, and we’ll have a wrap up later on.
