Dow Jones Newswire

By Ian Talley
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--The U.S. House of Representatives isn't likely to begin voting on a landmark climate bill next week, as the Democratic leadership tries to wrangle enough votes to pass the bill, legislators said Friday.

The authors of the bill said earlier this week that a deal was near that would assuage concerns by Farm Belt Democrats, but now Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson, D-Minn., has asked the White House to mediate.

The president's climate and energy czar, Carol Browner, and other senior White House officials met with the chief sponsor of the bill, Henry Waxman, D-Calif., along with several disgruntled Democrats and agriculture industry officials. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack participated by phone.

"I told the speaker this morning...there's no way it's going to come out next week," Peterson said after days of meetings without resolution. "I'm getting tired of going around in circles."

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., confirmed late Friday on the House floor that the bill isn't likely to come to the floor next week, but left open the possibility should a final compromise surface.

Dozens of Democrats, largely from rural, Midwestern states, have said they wouldn't vote for it unless Waxman amends the bill to meet their concerns, including rising electricity prices and how agricultural emission-reduction programs would be regulated and farmers compensated.

According to several lawmakers, one of the main proposals on the table includes giving rural electricity co-ops that largely depend on coal generation more emission credits, valuable and tradable allowances that give the holder a right to emit a certain amount of greenhouse gas. Another incentive is a new "conservation program," where farmers would be compensated for practices that could reduce emissions. Such a program would be in addition to the existing "offsets" proposal that allows emitters such as oil refineries to invest in agriculture projects that cut emissions.

Negotiations have been ongoing the past week. Waxman had said Thursday the legislators were "very close" to a deal and he was still aiming for a vote by next week.

But Friday, Rep. Timothy Walz, another holdout Minnesota Democrat, said a proposal proffered by Waxman "doesn't go far enough to meet our concerns." And without a deal on paper to take home over the weekend to discuss with constituents, it would be difficult for many lawmakers to give their backing in time for a floor vote next week, Walz said.

Peterson said he didn't expect the meeting later Friday to finalize the deal. Waxman said he is going to stay in Washington over the weekend to try to resolve the impasse.

Waxman and the bill's co-author Ed Markey, D-Mass., said after the meeting with lawmakers, White House and farm industry officials that no compromise had been brokered. But participation by both Browner and Vilsack "added a level of seriousness to the issue and...reflects how important this is for the President."

"We're not moving as fast as I would like, but we're still trying to work out some issues...and I expect that we should reach an agreement, but we're not there yet," Waxman said before the meeting with White House officials.

Meanwhile, Mike Doyle, D-Pa., said he thought an informal vote count would reveal "a close situation."

"You have so many undecided, [a vote on the legislation] could break either way," passing by a comfortable margin or failing, Doyle said.

-By Ian Talley, Dow Jones Newswires, 202-862-9285; ian.talley@dowjones.com