Climate Details, Still TBD

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


What happened at yesterday’s huddle on climate and energy legislation at the White House? There have been vague reports of general agreement from the senators who participated in the meeting, but still no details yet on what kind og legislation might materialize in the Senate and which lawmakers might support it.

The meeting included six Republicans and eight Democrats, all seen as key to the climate and energy debate. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaksa), who is leading Senate efforts to block the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating carbon dioxide pollution, told Mother Jones on Wednesday that there was “good agreement” on “general principles,” “but as with anything the devil is always in the details.” “At this point in time I think we’re still in a lot of talking stages,” said Murkowski.

Other senators seemed to have a similarly vague observations after the meeting.”There was a lot of progress,” Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) said Wednesday. Brown noted, however, that yesterday’s talks didn’t really go into details about the anticipated legislation from Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), but that he expects to see more specifics in the next few weeks.

President Obama participated in the 70-minute conversation as well, though it’s not clear how much he weighed in on specifics, other than expressing “strong support for a bipartisan effort to establish clean energy incentives,” a White House aide told The Hill.

Greenwire notes that Kerry said they are “moving very rapidly” and are “now down to dealing with specific language and negotiating with various interested parties.”

But in conversations with Senate staffers, it doesn’t seem like they have seen many specifics yet, even following yesterday’s big meeting. Staffers and environmental lobbyists say that they have still seen only an outline of a bill that includes a lot of open ends on both the mechanism for pricing carbon and energy incentives. And of course, whether senators will support an eventual bill depends a whole lot on how Kerry, Graham, and Lieberman fill in those blanks. The group that met at the White House yesterday was fairly representative of the constituencies needed to get a bill passed this year – coal states, manufacturing states, sympathetic Republicans and strong environmental advocates like Barbar Boxer (D-Calif.)–and whether or not the trio can get their support is going to be key to getting to 60 votes. “I think if this group continues to work together, we can get something done on this, this year,” Lieberman said after the meeting.

Kerry has said that they will release a draft of legislation before the Easter recess, but it sure sounds like they have a long way to go in figuring out exactly what that bill will look like.

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE ON MOTHER JONES' FINANCES

We need to start being more upfront about how hard it is keeping a newsroom like Mother Jones afloat these days.

Because it is, and because we're fresh off finishing a fiscal year, on June 30, that came up a bit short of where we needed to be. And this next one simply has to be a year of growth—particularly for donations from online readers to help counter the brutal economics of journalism right now.

Straight up: We need this pitch, what you're reading right now, to start earning significantly more donations than normal. We need people who care enough about Mother Jones’ journalism to be reading a blurb like this to decide to pitch in and support it if you can right now.

Urgent, for sure. But it's not all doom and gloom!

Because over the challenging last year, and thanks to feedback from readers, we've started to see a better way to go about asking you to support our work: Level-headedly communicating the urgency of hitting our fundraising goals, being transparent about our finances, challenges, and opportunities, and explaining how being funded primarily by donations big and small, from ordinary (and extraordinary!) people like you, is the thing that lets us do the type of journalism you look to Mother Jones for—that is so very much needed right now.

And it's really been resonating with folks! Thankfully. Because corporations, powerful people with deep pockets, and market forces will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. Only people like you will.

There's more about our finances in "News Never Pays," or "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," and we'll have details about the year ahead for you soon. But we already know this: The fundraising for our next deadline, $350,000 by the time September 30 rolls around, has to start now, and it has to be stronger than normal so that we don't fall behind and risk coming up short again.

Please consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

—Monika Bauerlein, CEO, and Brian Hiatt, Online Membership Director

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE ON MOTHER JONES' FINANCES

We need to start being more upfront about how hard it is keeping a newsroom like Mother Jones afloat these days.

Because it is, and because we're fresh off finishing a fiscal year, on June 30, that came up a bit short of where we needed to be. And this next one simply has to be a year of growth—particularly for donations from online readers to help counter the brutal economics of journalism right now.

Straight up: We need this pitch, what you're reading right now, to start earning significantly more donations than normal. We need people who care enough about Mother Jones’ journalism to be reading a blurb like this to decide to pitch in and support it if you can right now.

Urgent, for sure. But it's not all doom and gloom!

Because over the challenging last year, and thanks to feedback from readers, we've started to see a better way to go about asking you to support our work: Level-headedly communicating the urgency of hitting our fundraising goals, being transparent about our finances, challenges, and opportunities, and explaining how being funded primarily by donations big and small, from ordinary (and extraordinary!) people like you, is the thing that lets us do the type of journalism you look to Mother Jones for—that is so very much needed right now.

And it's really been resonating with folks! Thankfully. Because corporations, powerful people with deep pockets, and market forces will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. Only people like you will.

There's more about our finances in "News Never Pays," or "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," and we'll have details about the year ahead for you soon. But we already know this: The fundraising for our next deadline, $350,000 by the time September 30 rolls around, has to start now, and it has to be stronger than normal so that we don't fall behind and risk coming up short again.

Please consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

—Monika Bauerlein, CEO, and Brian Hiatt, Online Membership Director

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate