This week, the National Journal's Energy & Environment Blog posed several questions about the Kerry-Boxer climate bill. Among them, "What's your take on the chairman's mark and EPA's analysis?" The blog also invited a number of individuals, including API's Jack Gerard, to discuss the bill's strong points, weak points and provide an overall perspective on the legislation.

In an excerpt from Jack's post, he said:

"Although the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was directed to assess the Kerry-Boxer bill, it did not conduct a formal analysis. Instead, it chose to rely on its earlier assessment of the Waxman-Markey bill, which was fraught with overly optimistic assumptions that greatly downplayed energy costs. The government's own Energy Information Administration (EIA) has projected that... more »

In the first of a series of Senate hearings about the Kerry-Boxer climate bill today, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mt.) said he has "serious reservations" about the bill's "overall direction."

Speaking at today's Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing, Baucus encouraged Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) to compromise with Republican members of the committee, who have expressed strong opposition to the bill. As Politico reported today, Republicans "see the legislation...as a nonstarter."

"This bill necessarily will raise the price of gasoline, electricity, food and just about everything else," Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) said.

Based on the provisions in the Kerry-Boxer bill, it's expected that it would be even more costly than the House's Waxman-Markey bill:

• It... more »

Members of the Oil and Natural Gas Industry Labor-Management Committee, which includes API along with fifteen labor unions, have written to senior members of Congress encouraging them to support tax policies that will protect and encourage the development of quality U.S. jobs, while at the same time fortifying our nation's energy and economic security.

In letters sent to Sens. Max Baucus and Charles Grassley, chairman and ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee and Reps. Charles Rangel and Dave Camp, chairman and ranking member of the House Ways and Means Committee, the Committee said avoiding tax increases on the oil and natural gas industry is "not only good tax policy--it is good energy policy."

For more information, read the full letter and press release.

Friday night, Sen. Barbara Boxer issued an updated version of the Kerry-Boxer climate bill, and the more we learn about this bill, the more it resembles Waxman-Markey--only worse.

It will impose even greater costs on the economy and distribute those costs just as inequitably. It promises more consumer pain but also imposes much greater burdens on some parties than others. Farmers, truckers, airline passengers, families and all businesses that rely on petroleum fuels will be the clear losers, paying the lion's share of the costs.

Although the committee has been slow in releasing details of the legislation, making it difficult to analyze the costs, the close similarity to Waxman-Markey suggests the costs of Kerry-Boxer would be at least as great, including gasoline and diesel prices that cou... more »

More voices are speaking out against the climate legislation being considered on Capitol Hill. Here's a sampling of some of the statements and studies that have been in the news during the past couple of days.

Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchinson and Kit Bond released a report showing that the Waxman-Markey climate bill amounts to a $3.6 trillion energy tax on transportation fuels. The study shows that from 2010 to 2050 motorists, workers and businesses would pay $2.0 trillion more for gasoline; truckers, farmers and businesses would pay $1.3 trillion more for diesel fuel; and airline passengers would be charged $330 billion more to pay for jet fuel.

Reacting to the Hutchinson/Bond study, the American Trucking Association (ATA) issued a news release to remind elected officials that diesel fuel is u... more »