Darren Samuelsohn and Ben Geman, E&E senior reporters
Two powerful House Democratic committee chairmen announced terms of a deal this evening on a comprehensive global warming bill, paving the way for a vote later this week.
Agriculture Chairman Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) told reporters today he would vote for the House climate bill — and bring dozens of rural lawmakers with him — after Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) agreed to make a number of concessions that had drawn the ire of farm state members.
Waxman agreed to put the Agriculture Department — rather than U.S. EPA — in the lead for management of the offset program that pays farmers and other landowners to conduct environmentally friendly projects. Congress will turn to the Obama administration for guidance on how to fold in EPA.
Waxman also consented to block EPA from calculating “indirect” greenhouse gas emissions from land-use changes when implementing the federal biofuels mandate. The Democrats will impose a five-year moratorium to allow further study of the issue, with consultation from Congress, EPA, the Energy Department and USDA instrumental in restarting the measurements in the biofuels rules.
Peterson and Waxman have been negotiating for several weeks on the climate bill, with the Minnesota Democrat threatening to bring as many as 50 fellow lawmakers along with him during a floor vote on the bill.
“We have something that I think works for agriculture,” Peterson said. “We have a couple of areas that may get resolved down the line, but I think we have a meeting of the minds about where we are generally headed.”
“The essential thing is we have an agreement,” Waxman added. “We will be moving forward Friday. We will pass this bill.” Waxman also insisted he would bring environmentalists along because of the core agreement on climate.
Democratic staff are expected to write language tonight on the key agreements and plan to release the text tomorrow for inclusion in a manager’s amendment before the floor debate, the chairmen said.
