In climate bill news:
Senators complain to Politico that John Kerry (D-Mass.) cares too much about climate change. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) whines that Kerry’s persistent pursuit of his vote for carbon caps is like being “pursued by a suitor, just as boys pursue girls.” Another senator, too cowardly to say so on the record apparently, bemoans, “He’s so obsessed … it’s all climate, all the time with him.”
But at least some liberal Senate Democrats are standing up for the need to include climate provisions in an energy bill this year and threatening rebellion if it doesn’t.
President Obama will meet with a bipartisan group of senators on Wednesday to “bridge some differences” on energy policy.
And in BP oil disaster news:
BP uses a “risky” well design much more often than its peers, reports the Wall Street Journal. This cheaper well design has been fingered as a potential cause/contributor to the Deepwater Horizon disaster.
GQ has a gripping account of the final days and hours of the Deepwater Horizon, with first-hand accounts of what took place on the rig before and during the explosion.
CNN bars two commentators who are now paid BP consultants, Alex Castellanos and Hilary Rosen, from discussing the oil disaster on their programs.
BP CEO Tony Hayward has been getting his fair share of criticism for attending a yacht race over the weekend. But Obama, too, has been chastised for his golf outings amid the oil crisis.
Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen said that federal responders “don’t know the exact status of the well bore,” which, if compromised, might unleash even more oil into the Gulf. Allen also said that they have set a goal of raising their siphoning capacity to 60,000 to 80,000 barrels a day by mid-July. Keep in mind the official government spill estimate is still a maximum of 60,000 barrels per day. Might that rise significantly yet again?
And in other environmental news:
The EPA is urging Congress to reinstate the Superfund “polluter pays” tax, which required oil and chemical companies to pay into the cleanup fund. The tax lapsed on December 31, 1995, and since then Congress has appropriated about $1.2 billion a year in taxpayer dollars for hazardous-waste cleanups.
