McConnell says he has bipartisan backing to block energy legislation

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has “total confidence” he
can defeat the Senate energy bill with bipartisan support.

After
meeting with President Barack Obama and Democratic leaders, McConnell
told reporters that Obama and his allies are trying to use the oil spill
in the Gulf of Mexico as a “rationale” for passing cap and trade.

{mosads}Despite McConnell’s (R-Ky.) confidence, Majority Leader Harry Reid
(D-Nev.) said he has planned a meeting with Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) on Wednesday afternoon, and
scheduled a caucus on the bill with Senate Democrats for next week.

Reid did not answer questions about McConnell’s assurance that he can defeat the proposal, which has already passed the House.

McConnell, joined by House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), said Obama and Democrats are “seizing on the oil spill in the Gulf and using that as a rationale, if you will, to pass a national energy tax referred to down here at the White House as cap and trade.”

McConnell said Obama “continues to support” the legislation that the minority leader says “has absolutely nothing to do with the environmental disaster we’re facing in the Gulf.”

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said the words “cap and trade” never came up during the meeting, but McConnell did make clear to the president his opposition to the energy legislation in the Senate.

McConnell said his party is willing to work with the Obama administration on legislation that is appropriate to the spill, such as reforming the Minerals Management Service.

But Boehner was defiant, saying “both the administration and BP should be held responsible for their various failures.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) credited Obama for sending Attorney General Eric Holder to the region to investigate and pursue criminal charges over the explosion and subsequent cleanup.

Pelosi said there was a “lack of integrity” demonstrated by BP in the aftermath of the explosion, and she said the government should intercede to ensure that BP is paying out claims to small businesses before it makes good on its dividends to shareholders.

“Of course, and that would be their best public relations instead of taking out all these ads,” Pelosi said.