'Climate' bill being written by corporations who know best behind closed doors-Politico

• 7/15, "Climate talks progress," Politico, Samuelsohn

"Negotiations taking place at Duke Energy Corp.’s downtown Washington offices....
"NO Senate staff in the room"...

Thursday...a second day of closed-door talks on capping greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, according to three sources close to the negotiations. ...

“You’re dealing with a set of utilities who really want to do something and a group of environmentalists who know this is the best chance for a long time,” said Eileen Claussen, president of the

• Pew Center on Global Climate Change." ...(representing vested interests)
  

(continuing, Politico): “People are really working through the stuff and so far so good. But there are more issues to deal with.”

Claussen and the other sources declined comment on the specifics of the negotiations taking place at Duke Energy Corp.’s downtown Washington offices. But they confirmed that industry and environmental officials are wrestling with an industry demand for regulatory relief from several existing Clean Air Act provisions as a point of entry for agreeing to go first in a climate change program. They also are debating exemptions from EPA climate regulations and allocation of

• valuable emission allowances needed for compliance with a mandatory greenhouse gas cap.

Industry officials at the table represent Duke, Exelon Corp., PG&E, PNM Resources and Dominion Resources. The Environmental Defense Fund, the Natural Resources Defense Council, Pew and the Bipartisan Policy Center also are in the room. The talks lasted nine hours Wednesday and three more hours Thursday. More conversations are expected in the coming days, but there is no plan for another in-person meeting....

• “No one calls Dems on the fact that environmental and electric utility lobbyists – which are both special interest groups – are negotiating major climate legislation, with potentially huge economic consequences for this nation, on behalf of the majority leader?” Dillon said in an e-mail.

“Senate staff weren’t even in the room? This is bullshit.”"

• Why not? No one is afraid of the wimpy republicans. ed. via Tom Nelson