By Judy Sheahan
May 3, 2010

The latest Climate Change/Energy legislation that was crafted in a tri-partisan effort was supposed to be unveiled at an April 26 press conference. Instead, the bill, which was written by Senators John Kerry (MA), Joe Lieberman (CT), and Lindsey Graham (SC), faced an uncertain future when Graham threatened to abandon negotiations after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (NV) announced that the issue of Immigration Reform would come before the Climate Change/Energy bill on the Senate schedule.

After days of negotiations, Reid announced that the Climate/Energy Bill would come before the Immigration bill and the key points of the legislation were sent to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for an economic analysis, which is considered a precursor to a floor debate. It is estimated that EPA will take six to eight weeks to complete its analysis.

What is unclear is whether the Conference of Mayors’ top priority – funding for the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) – was included in the bill. Funding for EECBG was included in the Kerry-Boxer climate legislation entitled the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act (S. 1733) that was introduced in September of 2009. However, Republicans from the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee boycotted the markup of that bill over issues regarding EPA analysis, as well as other concerns. And although it passed out of committee, that bill is no longer being considered.

The Kerry-Graham-Lieberman legislation has only been seen by a small number of organizations that mainly consisted of utility groups and other companies that would be impacted by the legislation. Supposedly, the bill would require a 17 percent reduction in U.S. emissions by 2020, from 2005 levels. It is also supposed to deal with individual sectors such as power plants, petroleum refiners and manufacturers while the transportation sector will be handled separately.

The Conference of Mayors has testified numerous times over the past years, held several lobby days, and sent individual members up to the Hill to encourage the House and Senate to include EECBG in whatever climate change legislation is introduced. At the September 15 lobby day, a group of mayors met with Kerry who gave credit to the mayors for leading the way on climate change and said the idea of a block grant for cities “made sense.”

It is imperative that all mayors call their Senate offices urging them to include funding for the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant program in the final Climate Change/Energy bill.