Nelson: Few prospects for climate change bill

WASHINGTON - Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., had a grim prediction Wednesday for the prospects of the latest federal climate change proposal, this one from Sens. John Kerry and Joe Lieberman.

Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat, and Lieberman, a Connecticut Independent, are introducing a bill aimed at cutting carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping greenhouse gases.

But Nelson said support for the climate change provisions simply isn’t there.

"There’s no way it has 60 votes," Nelson said during a conference call with reporters.

The new bill attempts to address at least some of the objections of states dependent on coal power, such as Nebraska and Iowa, but Nelson was skeptical that the sponsors will come up with the "silver chalice" to win his support.

Nelson said he doesn’t see how a cap and trade system could avoid hurting states such as Nebraska. That approach would cap greenhouse gas emissions and set up a system for power plants and others to trade allowances for the emissions they produce.

"If there’s a way to move in a deliberate fashion to where we would actually reduce the emissions with clean-burning coal over some period of time that does not adversely and detrimentally affect the cost of generating electricity in coal-fired situations, I’ll always take a look at that," Nelson said. "But to add the idea of the ‘trade,’ I think, sinks that proposal as far as I’m concerned."

Nelson said he hopes that portions of the bill dealing with energy production can be split off and brought up separately.

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