The Blanche Lincoln Energy & Climate Complex

At White House: 14 senators discuss climate-energy legislation
The White House hosted a meeting Tuesday with 14 key senators, many from coal- and oil-producing states, who oppose curbs on carbon emissions. Obama appears to be making a big push to win Senate passage of revamped climate-energy legislation. Senators John Kerry, Lindsey Graham, and Joseph Lieberman, who have been working on new climate-energy legislation and who met today at the White House for a discussion on the proposed bill. Harry Hamburg/AP

White House hosts meeting on energy, climate
Washington (AP) - President Barack Obama is meeting with Cabinet members and key senators from both parties in a bid to move forward on a long-stalled climate and energy bill. A bill sponsored by Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., aims to cut emissions of pollution-causing Greenhouse Gases by 17 percent by 2020. The bill would abandon a broad “cap-and-trade” approach to reducing carbon pollution. Instead it would apply different carbon...

Obama will meet with key senators on energy and climate
President Barack Obama will meet with a bipartisan group of senators on Tuesday to discuss energy issues. Obama will meet with Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) -- the group working to craft a bipartisan Climate Change bill -- along with 11 other senators and top administration officials tomorrow. The meeting is set to bring together the chairmen and ranking members of top Senate committees on energy and Climate issues, as well as a number of...

LIEBERMAN ANNOUNCES ADDITIONAL SUPPORT FOR REPEALING "DON'T ASK, DON'T TELL"
Senator Joe Lieberman (ID-CT) today announced that nine additional United States Senators have joined as co-sponsors to the Military Readiness Enhancement Act (S. 3065).  Senators John Kerry (D-MA), Richard Durbin (D-IL), Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Tom Udall (D-NM), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Bob Casey (D-PA), and Russ Feingold (D-WI) have signed on to the bill, which Senator Lieberman introduced with Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) and thirteen other...

American Petroleum Tells Lawmakers It Supports Carbon Fee Because It's Easier To Demonize
American Petroleum Tells Lawmakers It Supports Carbon Fee Because It’s Easier To Demonize The effort of Senators John Kerry (D-MA), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and Joe Lieberman (I-CT) to craft comprehensive Clean Energy legislation that caps Global Warming pollution has brought some positive words from Big Oil and their political allies. In particular, the senators are considering a proposal by ConocoPhillips, BP America and Exxon Mobil to exclude petroleum producers and refiners from a...

EPA chief warns of lost benefits with fragmented climate bill
EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said Monday that moving away from a broad "economy-wide" Climate bill could hinder Private Sector investment in low-carbon technologies. A trio of senators hoping to salvage Climate legislation are mulling a plan that breaks with the sweeping cap-and-trade bill the House approved last year. Instead the senators " John Kerry (D-Mass.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) " are considering a more fragmented plan that could impose a...

DADT Reversal Wins Nine New Co-Sponsors
Sen. Joe Lieberman (ID-Conn.) on Tuesday attracted nine new backers for his bill to overturn the Military’s controversial “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, but a Republican co-sponsor continues to elude him. In a statement, Lieberman announced his bill drew the support of Democratic Sens. John Kerry (Mass.), Dick Durbin (Ill.), Charles Schumer (N.Y.), Frank Lautenberg (N.J.), Sherrod Brown (Ohio), Tom Udall (N.M.), Bob Casey (Pa.) and Russ Feingold (Wis.). Sen. Bernie...

American Petroleum tells lawmakers it supports carbon fee because it's easier to demonize
The bipartisan effort of Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC), John Kerry (D-MA), and Joe Lieberman (I-CT) to craft comprehensive Clean Energy legislation that caps Global Warming pollution has brought some positive words from Big Oil and their political allies.

New Life for an Energy Bill?
Lost in yesterday's Eric Massa circus was news that a bipartisan group of 14 senators -- led by Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) -- is pushing ahead with Climate Change legislation. The bill under discussion would put a first-ever price on carbon emissions. New York Times : "The rush of activity underscored the last-ditch push to produce a draft Senate bill before the spring recess that begins March 26."

Sen. Kerry lobbies for climate compromise; actual bill to come
The three senators writing Compromise climate legislation are Lobbying business groups in hopes of winning their support for the effort. One obstacle: the absence of an actual bill. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) briefed a group of electric utility executives this week on a broad outline of the plan. Kerry and his cohorts, Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), have also reached out to Tom Donohue, the president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, who has been among the...

Six Degrees of Separation
Over at the Sunlight Foundation, Paul Blumenthal has a handy guide to the six former staffers of Blanche Lincoln, ardent opponent of the bipartisan House Cap and Trade bill and supporter of legislation to block the EPA from capping carbon emissions should the House bill fail, who are now Lobbying on behalf of interests attempting to achieve the same, Six of Lincoln's former staffers currently lobby for interests invested in influencing carbon capping legislation. These interests include oil...

Lincoln and Lieberman
The fact that Joe Lieberman and Blanche Lincoln have the highest disapproval numbers of any Senators we've looked at in the last six months should be a warning to any House Democrats who supported Health Care in November and are thinking about opposing it now. Although there are plenty of other reasons for the unpopularity of Lieberman and Lincoln, the most recent drops in their numbers are a result of aggravating everyone with their machinations on Health Care. They ticked off Democrats by...

Senate Guru's Expand the Map!
Thanks to the gains of 2006 and 2008, along with some political surprises, Democrats enjoy a large majority. But don't get too excited, as it's a soft majority. From former Republicans (like Arlen Specter) to LieberDems (like, well, Joe Lieberman) to Democrats all too happy to aid Republican obstructionism (like Blanche Lincoln), we can't stop every Filibuster that Republicans mount. We still need to pick up seats to further slow down Republican obstructionism in the Senate. 2010...