Climate Bill: Not Dead Yet!

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


John Kerry on Tuesday called off the vultures swooping in on comprehensive climate and energy legislation, arguing that senators are closer than ever to sealing a deal.

“I’m excited. I know that’s completely contrary to any conventional wisdom,” he said, noting that he and Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) met last night with members of the Obama administration to discuss progress on a bill. “We’re on a short track here in terms of piecing together legislation.” (The optimism about the legislation is so far outside the expectations of most Senate observers that one reporter muttered “Is John Kerry delusional?” following his remarks.)

His remarks come a day after Max Baucus (D-Mont.), who would oversee key portions of a climate and energy bill as chair of the Finance Committee, indicated that legislation doesn’t stand much of a chance of moving this year.

“I’ll have to talk to Sen. Baucus,” Kerry told reporters. “I’ve talked to Max Baucus any number of times personally and he has said to me each time he wants to get it done.”

But Kerry was still reticent to give a date that the senators may introduce a bill, or even any indication of what that final bill might look like. “I’m not going into detail about what’s in the bill,” he said at an event at the National Press Club. “I just tell you it’s comprehensive,” he said, adding that “it will be different than anything that has been put on the table in the House or Senate to date.”

The key sticking point, Kerry said, remains the method the bill will use to price carbon, and “every mechanism that’s out there” remains on the table. Other essential elements for a deal, like nuclear power provisions, are important for “opening up some conversations” with senators, he said, but, “I don’t think it’s going to be the clincher for a final bill.”

The White House also expressed enthusiasm about where Kerry’s negotiations are heading. Asked whether the White House would offer specific legislative proposals on climate and energy, as it did yesterday on health care following months of stalemate, Carol Browner, special adviser on climate change and energy, said the Obama administration has no plans to put forward legislation proposals. “We think the work going on on the Hill is going at a nice speed, and we are going to continue to work with those folks,” said Browner.

She also downplayed accusations that Obama and his administration have not done enough to prioritize climate and energy legislation. “In virtually every public appearance of the president he mentions these issues, he calls on Congress to do this,” said Browner. “I think we have been abundantly clear about our desire for comprehensive legislation.”

WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

Because the in-depth journalism on underreported beats and unique perspectives on the daily news you turn to Mother Jones for is only possible because readers fund us. Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism we exist to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we need readers to show up for us big time—again.

Getting just 10 percent of the people who care enough about our work to be reading this blurb to part with a few bucks would be utterly transformative for us, and that's very much what we need to keep charging hard in this financially uncertain, high-stakes year.

If you can right now, please support the journalism you get from Mother Jones with a donation at whatever amount works for you. And please do it now, before you move on to whatever you're about to do next and think maybe you'll get to it later, because every gift matters and we really need to see a strong response if we're going to raise the $253,000 we need in less than three weeks.

payment methods

WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

Because the in-depth journalism on underreported beats and unique perspectives on the daily news you turn to Mother Jones for is only possible because readers fund us. Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism we exist to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we need readers to show up for us big time—again.

Getting just 10 percent of the people who care enough about our work to be reading this blurb to part with a few bucks would be utterly transformative for us, and that's very much what we need to keep charging hard in this financially uncertain, high-stakes year.

If you can right now, please support the journalism you get from Mother Jones with a donation at whatever amount works for you. And please do it now, before you move on to whatever you're about to do next and think maybe you'll get to it later, because every gift matters and we really need to see a strong response if we're going to raise the $253,000 we need in less than three weeks.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate