Jurisdiction Issues Remain on Clean Energy Bill
House Ag Committee wants input on bill before it goes to floor.
Compiled by staff
Published: Jun 4, 2009
House Agriculture Committee Chair Collin Peterson, D-Minn., wants key issues settled before he will sign off on the American Clean Energy and Security Act, the climate change legislation recently approved by the Energy and Commerce Committee. Peterson told House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., in a meeting this week he wants his committee to write the bill's language related to agriculture. He also wants the indirect land-use issues concerning the renewable fuels standard resolved. And that's before legislation goes to the floor as Peterson says he does not want to have to fix the bill on the House floor.
Pelosi issued a June 19 deadline for committees to move the legislation, but Peterson said he was not ready to schedule a markup of the bill.
"The speaker, she wants to move this, but I think she understands we're going to do this right," Peterson said. "So if it takes time to do it right, we're going to do it right."
Before the recess, Peterson said he had 40 to 45 votes lined up against the bill if he didn't get a chance to resolve ag issues. He has backed off that statement.
"We're not trying to stop this bill," he said Wednesday. "We're trying to make it workable."
Concerning the cap and trade issue Peterson says he'd prefer to add a title to the bill to define U.S. agriculture's role, including ag offsets. Peterson says he is very troubled by a section of the measure that provides for 50% of the offsets to be international. He believes offsets should be domestic.
According to Peterson Speaker Pelosi directed him and Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., to resolve any outstanding jurisdictional disputes ASAP.
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