Both Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) have signaled they hope to hold votes this session on the act, which would allow some undocumented young people to gain legal status if they attended college or served in the military for two years.

Politico has the full readout from the meeting, which also states Obama’s continued commitment to comprehensive immigration reform “at the earliest opportunity”:

“The President reiterated his support for fixing the broken immigration system and urged the CHC leaders to work to restore the bipartisan coalition backing comprehensive immigration reform. The President repeated his hope that, with the election season’s pressures past, Congressional Republicans would work with their Democratic colleagues not only to strengthen security at the nation’s borders, but also to restore responsibility and accountability to what everyone agrees is a broken immigration system. The President reiterated his strong support for bipartisan Congressional action on immigration reform at the earliest opportunity, noting that the American people expect both parties to work together to tackle the challenges confronting our nation.”

Obama has consistently stated his support for the DREAM Act and comprehensive immigration reform. But with a likely tight vote ahead for the act in the Senate, Gutierrez said the president’s support is needed to ensure a united Democratic effort to pass the bill.

“With the White House, Majority Leader Harry Reid, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and every Democratic Leader in the House and Senate pulling in the same direction, we can pass the DREAM Act before the end of the 111th Congress,” he said in a press release after the meeting.

Right now, it is unclear whether all Democrats would vote for the DREAM Act, which is a problem given the Republicans’ larger share of the Senate after the newly elected Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) takes Obama’s former seat. At least five Democrats who voted against the DREAM Act in 2007 told The Hill they are still uncertain on how they would vote this year, and only two Republicans have said they would vote for the act as a standalone bill. Reid needs at least 60 votes to prevent a Republican filibuster — the tactic that took down the effort to insert the DREAM Act and a repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” into the defense authorization bill in September.

Matt Hartwig, a spokesman for the Renewable Fuels Association, a major ethanol industry trade group, told TWI today, “One opportunity will be if/when they move Bush tax cut legislation. That would be a natural place to add tax extenders. We will look for any other vehicle that will get to the president’s desk.”

The Renewable Fuels Association and a number of other ethanol and agriculture industry groups sent a letter today to congressional leaders ahead of their Thursday meeting with President Obama to discuss tax cuts and other key issues. In the letter, the groups — which include the American Coalition for Ethanol, Growth Energy and the National Corn Growers Association — call for the following:

• Extension of the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit, a tax credit of 45 cents cents per gallon of ethanol blended into gasoline. The tax credit is set to expire at the end of the year. “Without VEETC, ethanol blending will become less economically attractive to refiners, resulting in a substantial decline in discretionary blending, and upward pressure on consumer gasoline prices.  As a consequence of reduced demand, ethanol plants will close,” the letter says.
• Extension of the Alternative Fuel Infrastructure Tax Credit, which allows business owners to write off 50 percent of the cost of the necessary infrastructure upgrades to install ethanol pumps at gas stations. “Today, there are approximately 160,000 retail fuel outlets around the nation; however, only 2,300 are fitted with equipment able to dispense E85, and just a few hundred that can offer mid-level blends,” the letter says. “It is essential that there continue to be incentives to develop the infrastructure needed to make the ethanol blended fuels available to consumers.
• The letter also calls on the leaders to expand a tax credit for biofuels producers to include biofuels made from algae.

The letter comes as Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) took to the Senate floor yesterday to call for adding provisions that encourage ethanol use to an electric and natural gas vehicles bill set to come up for a procedural vote tomorrow. While he said he’d vote to allow the bill to move forward for debate, he warned that he would vote against the bill on final passage if it does not include the provisions.

Now, the stakes are somewhat different: In the lame-duck session, Democrats are up against tight time constraints and an additional Republican senator, the recently elected Mark Kirk from Illinois, to pass any immigration bills. But Menendez still says the DREAM Act, which would allow some undocumented students and military service members to gain legal status, should be the fallback to passing a far more contentious comprehensive immigration reform bill:

“The White House is ready and willing, and we may be having another meeting with the White House very soon this week,” Menendez said on a conference call, adding that Obama is “clearly interested” trying to reach a deal on immigration before the Congress convenes. [...]

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid have said they would like to push for the DREAM Act, which would provide a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants who were brought to the country as children, during the lame-duck session.

Menendez said that although he supports the legislation, he would “like that to be a fallback.”

“I would not like to start there,” Menendez said. “I am a strong supporter of the DREAM Act. If that is all that can be achieved, then I certainly support the opportunity.”

Granted, Menendez has some good reasons to continue pushing for comprehensive immigration reform: He introduced a reform bill just before the pre-election recess, and with Republicans set to take over the House in January it may be the last chance for reform for a few years. Obama will likely state his support for immigration reform — one of his campaign promises — and the DREAM Act.

But given the difficulty of rounding up 60 votes for even the DREAM Act, Reid and Pelosi seem unlikely to push for comprehensive immigration reform. The likelihood of passing comprehensive immigration reform during the lame-duck session is very low, and DREAM Act supporters have argued the act should not be held hostage to broader reform efforts if those efforts cannot gain Republican support.

“Allowing undocumented students to attend primary and secondary schools but requiring that they pay out-of-state tuition for college creates an unfair financial burden that many, even very talented, students cannot overcome,” Diaz-Balart said in a press release. “We should stop hampering these deserving students’ educational opportunities due to the decisions of their parents and allow a vote on the American DREAM Act.”

I explain some of the votes up in the air in our preview of the lame-duck session today. Pelosi has said she hopes to call for a vote on the bill, as has Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). But so far, it’s unclear whether the Democratic leadership has the votes to pass the bill, with some members of the Democratic caucus likely to break with the party to vote against the bill.

For immigrant rights groups, the stakes are high: If the DREAM Act cannot pass with Democrat majorities in both the House and the Senate, it will almost certainly be delayed until at least 2013, when Democrats could again take control of Congress. Immigrant rights groups are stepping up their efforts by staging protests and lobbying politicians to vote for the bill.

One reason supporters want the bill passed this year, beyond the obvious desire to provide more immediate relief to undocumented immigrants, is to prevent further problems with the DREAM Act’s age constraints. The current bill would allow undocumented immigrants who had attended two years of college or served in the military for two years to gain legal status if they had a clean permanent record and were under the age of 35.

For some, that age sounds too high — people who are in their 30s may no longer be students, whom the bill is theoretically meant to help. But Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the chief sponsor of the bill, said in October he wants to help those the bill was initially aimed at when it first came up in 2001 — some of whom may now be reaching the upper age limits of the bill.

If the bill is delayed, future efforts could raise the upper age cutoff — at the risk of losing some votes — or would no longer benefit those immigrants, some of whom have been advocating for the bill for years.

The push comes as an electric and natural gas vehicles bill that addresses a number of the coalitions concerns is expected to come up for a procedural vote during the lame-duck session.

Frederick Smith, CEO of FedEx Corporation, said in a statement:

Our main focus continues to be the promotion of a comprehensive policy framework for accelerating consumer adoption of PHEVs and EVs. … Fleet electrification alone will not solve our pressing energy security challenges, but by bringing costs down, it will provide a critical boost to the consumer electric vehicle market.

The so-called Electrification Coalition — which includes among its membership the heads of GE, Siemens and FedEx — released a new report, the Fleet Electrification Roadmap, outlining the proposals. The report calls on the United States to reduce its dependence on foreign oil by encouraging electric vehicle development.

“This excessive reliance on a single fuel to power a key component of our economy has left the United States hostage to a global oil market that is likely to become increasingly volatile,” the report says.

Electric vehicle development would come with a number of benefits, including new jobs and a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, the report says.

High penetration rates of grid-enabled vehicles—vehicles propelled in whole or in part by electricity drawn from the grid and stored onboard in a battery— could radically minimize the importance of oil to the United States, strengthening our economy, improving national security, and providing much-needed flexibility to our foreign policy. Simultaneously, such a system would clear a path to dramatically reduced economy-wide emissions of greenhouse gases.

Though electric vehicle production is up, “the long-term market outlook for these vehicles is somewhat uncertain.” By passing a number of policies, electric vehicles could make up as much as 7 percent of new vehicle purchases by 2015, the report finds, putting as many as 200,000 electric vehicles on the road.

Key policy recommendations:

• “Expand the tax credits for light-duty grid-enabled vehicles purchased in deployment communities to include private sector fleets.”
• “Create tax credits for medium- and heavy-duty grid-enabled vehicles deployed in fleets with greater than 10 vehicles in operation.”
• “Create clean renewable energy bonds for fleet vehicle charging infrastructure, and make municipal and regional transit authorities eligible for the bonds.”
• “Extend the existing tax credit for electric vehicle charging infrastructure through 2018 and expand the range of eligible costs.”
• “Allow immediate expensing of GEV purchases and supporting infrastructure for operators of certain fleets.”
• “Make tax credits available for the purchase of qualifying grid-enabled vehicles and related charging infrastructure transferable.”
• “Incentivize the establishment of special purpose entities to facilitate bulk purchasing of electric drive vehicles by fleet operators.”

The Blue Green Alliance — which includes among its membership the United Steelworkers, the United Autoworkers and the Union of Concerned Scientists — said passage of an RES is an essential step in creating new jobs and encouraging the development of clean energy technology. The group also called for passage of a number of other energy-related provisions during the lame duck including legislation to better protect mine and oil rig workers, provide incentives for home and building efficiency and expand energy manufacturing tax credits.

But prospects for passage of energy-related legislation during the lame-duck session are slim, as I reported today in our lame duck preview. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) talked last week about moving a renewable energy standard during the lame-duck session. But according to a senior Senate aide with knowledge of the conversation, it appears that Reid decided there isn’t enough support to do so.

Still, United Steelworkers President Leo Gerard said the alliance will push for passage of an RES and other energy provisions in the lame duck despite the potential uphill climb. “I don’t intend, as the leader of the steelworkers union, to take the path of least resistance,” he said on a call with reporters today. “I intend to take the path of the most jobs.”

And, in an apparent reference to Rep. John Shimkus’ (R-Ill.) comments about the Bible and climate change, Gerard added:

I don’t believe God’s going to step in and save global warming. I think we’ve got to step in and do something about it.

Update: Here’s a copy of the Blue Green Alliance’s seven “best job-creating policies” to pass in the lame-duck session.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) talked last week about moving a renewable energy standard during the lame-duck session. But according to a senior Senate aide with knowledge of the conversation, it appears that Reid decided there isn’t enough support to do so.

From the story:

Backers of a renewable energy standard, which would require that a certain percentage of the country’s electricity come from renewable sources like wind and solar, are keeping their fingers crossed that such a proposal can move in the lame-duck session. “We’re optimistic about the lame duck,” said one RES proponent who was not authorized to talk on the record.

Reid and Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) spoke on the phone Tuesday about the possibility of moving an RES during the lame duck. Bingaman’s spokesman, Bill Wicker, would not discuss the call. “This was a private conversation between two Members, so I have to respect that,” he said in an email. “But we all should know more about the lame duck before much longer.”

But a senior Senate aide with knowledge of the conversation downplayed the possibility that an RES would be brought up for a vote during the lame-duck session. “They had a good conversation and agreed it will be challenging to get 60 votes for expedited consideration of an RES during the limited time left in the session,” the aide said of discussion between Reid and Bingaman. Indeed, RES supporters would need to secure the support of two to four Republicans in addition to the four who already support the bill in order to get 60 votes.

One clean energy advocate with close ties to Congress tells me, “Little will happen, probably.”

I put the question to Regan Lachapelle, spokeswoman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. She said:

We filed cloture on a motion to proceed to a natural gas bill before we left. Other than that, we have many items that are possible for consideration during the lame duck.

Lachapelle did not elaborate on which pieces of legislation she was referring to.

He traces the oil spill narrative roughly like this: Outcry about the environmental effects of the spill turned into concerns about the moratorium on drilling, which, when the moratorium was lifted, turned into everybody moving on to something else.

At first, it seemed like an inevitability that the oil spill would become a major issue in the midterm elections. And in some cases it was — Grimm points to Florida Gov. Charlie Crist’s early Senate campaign rhetoric on the environmental impacts of the spill, and I’ve written before about how Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) and Rep. Charlie Melancon (D-La.) zeroed in on the drilling moratorium.

But oil spill rhetoric has faded significantly for a number of reasons. The first is time. It’s been more than six months since the spill, and the incident rarely gets front-page billing these days. The second, as Grimm points out, is the administration’s decision to overturn the moratorium. The decision took some of the wind out of arguments that the administration was destroying the Gulf economy, though Sens. Vitter and Mary Landrieu (D-La.) have both raised concerns that new drilling rules will slow the pace of new drilling.

The third is a little more complicated. On the one hand, many Democrats seem reluctant to make the oil spill an election issue, because in doing so, they would have to acknowledge one embarrassing little detail: The Senate has failed to pass an oil spill response bill. On the other hand, many Republicans would have to reconcile their support for expanded offshore drilling with the obvious safety concerns. At the end of the day, it’s a thorny issue for both sides of the aisle.

After the midterms, once our elected officials trek back to D.C. to do the less glamorous job of legislating, the big question is this: How will Congress deal with offshore drilling? Right now, it’s unclear. The momentum to pass an oil spill response bill is gone, and with it go the prospects that we’ll see stand-alone legislation on the issue. While it could come up in the lame-duck session, it seems more likely that oil spill response provisions will make their way into a broader energy bill next year that will focus on low-hanging fruit issues like electric vehicles and efficiency, possibly paired with a renewable energy standard. Of course, the outcome of the midterm elections will likely determine the lame-duck agenda.

Just how stringent oil spill response provisions will be depends largely on the outcome of behind-the-scenes liability negotiations between, among others, Sens. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), who would prefer unlimited liability on any company responsible for a spill, and Sens. Landrieu and Mark Begich (D-Alaska), who are trying to devise a mechanism by which companies can pool their liability in the event of a large disaster.

Immigrant rights advocates, and particularly young people who could benefit from the bill, have lobbied hard for the DREAM Act in recent months as comprehensive immigration reform began to look increasingly unlikely. Reid announced plans on Sept. 14 to insert the act into the defense authorization bill along with a controversial repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” But Republicans filibustered the bill, killing off chances of passing the DREAM Act before November.

If Republicans win additional seats in the Senate next week — and it seems certain they will — the bill would probably be dead until at least 2012. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the bill’s chief sponsor, re-introduced the act the day after the defense authorization bill was filibustered. At the time, he said he hoped it could pass during a lame-duck session. “Some members of the Senate who are not going to return may vote in our favor,” he said. “I hope that’s the case.”

Reid’s decision to move forward with the bill pleased immigrant rights groups, the Huffington Post reports:

“The DREAM Act would give a group of young immigrants here without immigration status through no fault of their own the chance to attend college, serve in the military and earn citizenship,” said Frank Sharry, executive director of America’s Voice. “These valedictorians, future scientists and future soldiers are Americans in all but paperwork, and we are thrilled that Senator Reid is committed to moving this common-sense measure before the end of the year.”

“We support and will be looking for viable efforts to pass the DREAM Act after the election,” said Center for American Progress Vice President for Immigration Policy Advocacy Angela Kelley. “In order for that to happen however, like-minded Republicans will have to step forward and show their support for this modest measure to provide relief to young people. There hasn’t been a lot to suggest that bipartisan constructive conversation on immigration is possible, but I’d love to be proven wrong.”

Of course, Reid may be one of the senators on the way out, depending on whether he is able to defeat Republican Sharron Angle on Tuesday. The Nevada Senate race has become largely about immigration, as Reid tries to play up his immigration reform support and Angle attacks him for it. The DREAM Act has widespread backing among Latino voters, who Reid has said should support Democrats based on immigration concerns. When Reid inserted the DREAM Act into the defense authorization bill, observers said it might be an attempt to win over Latino voters who were disappointed by the lack of comprehensive immigration reform bill. The most recent statement could be considered another attempt to win over the demographic before the election.

Angle, of course, is banking on Reid’s actions with the DREAM Act driving voters into her camp. Her ads accuse the DREAM Act of giving “preferred college tuition rates” to illegal immigrants, along with a number of other questionable statements.