Praise from the Power Sector

At what price Power?

Current legislative climate proposals mean power sector costs will perhaps rise significantly, technology could possibly be rendered obsolete (or at least excessively expensive), and essentially what the companies call Business As Usual would change forever.

So, naturally, power providers are supporting the idea. Or at least NRG Energy is, a company deep into Natural Gas, Nuclear, and Coal electricity generation.

I talked with Steve Corneli, NRG's Senior VP of Market and Climate Policy, about the Kerry-Graham-Lieberman climate bill. The proposal would, at its essence, put a price on carbon. And the first to pay that price, beginning in 2012, would be utilities and power sector players.

Fair? Well, according to Steve the idea of hitting up the power sector first "makes sense." Here's his take on the bill, from our interview at CleanSkies.com.

Bottom line here? The KGL bill is still very much in flux, but what the power sector thinks/says/does about the proposal will influence Senators Kerry, Graham, and Lieberman going forward.

And "forward" could mean Friday, the final day before Spring Break here on Capitol Hill.

Party on, Lindsey.

An Inside Outline

So we now have an draft outline of a draft bill that has yet to be dropped. And drip-drip-drip goes the Senate's legislative process.

In a closed-door session Wednesday, Senators Graham, Kerry, and Lieberman (from left) shared their rough outline for a climate bill with industry leaders. "Industry" meaning the big guns who would be most affected by a cap on carbon emissions. Here's our coverage from this morning's edition of The Energy Report.

I think CAP's Joe Romm lays out the details pretty well (by way of CQ), given that The Details are very much subject to change. Nonetheless, this is a well-nuanced start of sorts:

• An economy-wide cap on carbon emissions that would begin in 2012, with a target of reducing carbon pollution 17 percent by 2020 and 80 percent by 2050.

• Separate caps on carbon emissions by the electric utilities and manufacturing sectors, which would have to buy permits to pollute from the federal government.

• A combination for the regulated sectors of a “cap and trade” model, under which polluters could trade pollution permits on an open market, and a “cap and dividend” model, which would return revenue from the sale of permits directly to consumers.

• Sections or titles devoted to oil refining, farming, coal, clean energy innovation, and increasing production of nuclear energy and oil and natural gas drilling.

Virtually the first question that comes to mind is, How long will this version be relevant? John Kerry says the next step, a draft bill following reaction from the aforementioned Industry, could be out as soon as the end of next week.

Lindsey Graham's take? The Health Care morass could endanger Senate legislaiton for the rest of the year.

Private Sector Prose

...or "Reality from The Real World."

No, not that Real World (copyright, MTV Productions). The world that exists outside of esoteric policy and political theory.

It's usually pretty refreshing to get a candid, insightful take from private sector leaders. You know, what policy proposals will mean for the rest of us (also known as "Americans").

These are from my recent conversations with NRG Energy'sDavid Crane (top) and PSE&G's Ralph Izzo (below) at the EnergyBiz Leadership Forum. Here are the links to our interviews: Izzo, Crane.

This year's venue, The Mandarin Oriental. Always a little more inviting to cover a conference at such a lovely venue. Well, swank might be more accurate than just lovely.

Didn't stay to hit the spa, but Ralph Izzo did tell me he was planning to dive into the hotel gym...until his PR guy told him the schedule was too tight.

We took only 15 minutes of his time, though, I promise. Not our fault.