Enviros Meet With Utilities to Talk Utility-Only Bill

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So far, sources close to the talks said, the two sides are holding firm in their demands. The power companies want relief from the air pollution rules as a price of entry into negotiations if they are going to accept a mandatory carbon limit that won’t apply to other industries. The environmentalists are saying no.

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Several key figures met Monday night at The Caucus Room restaurant to hash out a range of issues, from the distribution of valuable emissions allocations in a utility-only climate bill to the potential retirement of aging coal-fired power plants. But the talks ran aground over the air pollution rules.

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At the table for industry: Duke Energy President and CEO Jim Rogers, Exelon Chairman and CEO John Rowe, Dominion Resources President and CEO Thomas Farrell and PNM Resources Chairman and CEO Jeff Sterba. Environmental Defense Fund President Fred Krupp, Natural Resources Defense Council President Frances Beinecke and David Hawkins, director of the NRDC climate center and a former Environmental Protection Agency air pollution director from the Carter administration, represented the environmental groups.”