Great Lakes power agency not in bill

WASHINGTON — A proposal to establish a federal power marketing agency in the Great Lakes, and possibly use its proceeds to fund improvements or expansion of the St. Lawrence Seaway, is not included in the latest climate change bill floated in the Senate, suggesting the issue will fall to a House-Senate conference committee next year.

Had the idea, pushed by Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, appeared in the Senate bill, it would have been all but certain to survive in a final bill in at least some form. Now Ms. Kaptur faces an uphill fight to win the provision, which has raised objections from St. Lawrence River interests but has the support of the St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corp.

Ms. Kaptur has said her goal is to spur alternative energy production in the region, which is one of few areas in the country without a federal power marketing agency. The marketing agency could lend up to $3.5 billion, and proceeds from the sale of energy could be used to modernize the Seaway, she has said, although she has not explicitly said she wants to expand the system to accommodate bigger vessels.

Any talk of expansion raises eyebrows with riverfront property owners in Jefferson and St. Lawrence counties, and turning the Seaway Development Corp. into an alternative energy marketer would surely raise questions for the New York Power Authority, which already runs hydroelectric and nuclear facilities along the waterway.

Save the River, the Clayton-based environmental group, has been lobbying Sens. Kirsten E. Gillibrand and Charles E. Schumer, Democrats of New York, to oppose anything resembling Mrs. Kaptur's measure in the Senate bill.

Mrs. Gillibrand in particular is in a position to weigh in. Three of the committees upon which she sits — Environment and Public Works, Agriculture, and Foreign Relations — will have a say over the bill either in whole or in part. The environment committee, chaired by Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., could vote on the measure before the end of the year.

That would set up a House-Senate conference panel next year to craft a final bill.

Mrs. Gillibrand, who supports the Senate bill, said Wednesday she has seen no indication of support in the Senate for Ms. Kaptur's provision but is keeping an eye out for any developments and plans to speak more with constituents in New York.

If deliberations in the House earlier this year are any indication, the bill is subject to change as leaders try to collect 60 votes to prevent a Republican filibuster. Ms. Kaptur won the provision from the House leadership at the last minute, without any public indication she was seeking it, as a condition of voting for the bill, as the Democrats scrambled for support from their own moderate wing.

Mrs. Kaptur represents the Port of Toledo, a major shipping point on the Great Lakes. The Seaway's locks are too small to let most ocean vessels in, however.

At this point, it is not clear how much of that sort of trading might be needed to pass a bill in the Senate.

The Senate bill does include a provision that could satisfy Great Lakes environmental interests, creating a program to protect Great Lakes and other shorelines from the effects of global climate change, including rapidly changing lake water levels.