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From The Roanoke Times

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No one in The Roanoke Times newsroom could remember a time that the White House called, unsolicited, to offer comment.

That happened on Friday morning, sending several signals: There is a new media relations/political strategy on Pennsylvania Avenue, and the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 is a big deal.

After the story broke in Friday's edition about the House Energy and Commerce Committee passing the bill, a White House spokeswoman called The Roanoke Times to set up an interview with a Cabinet member, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood.

LaHood quickly gave praise to U.S. Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, whose 9th Congressional District is coal-rich with much at stake with the legislation. It would create a national "cap-and-trade" program to require power plants, oil refineries and manufacturers to obtain allowances for the pollution they emit. Those who need more or less could turn to a Wall Street-like market in the allowances.

"I want to give a shout out to Rick Boucher," LaHood said. "It was unclear going into the hearings how Rick was really going to vote on this. His support means a lot to the administration.

"It means a lot because he's one of the most thoughtful, serious members of the House. People know that and people know he doesn't just make his votes in a casual way. It also lends seriousness to the bill. When you get people like Rick Boucher voting for it, he believes it contains some really serious solutions."

The House committee voted Thursday to pass the bill, based largely on compromises worked out by Boucher.

He said he has spent the past several months working on one side with electric utilities, coal companies and the United Mine Workers, and on the other with committee chairman and bill sponsor Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., to soften the bill into a version that might be able to win congressional approval.

LaHood's call underscores Boucher's importance to the bill's chances of passing. It also emphasizes just how much the congressman from Abingdon has stuck his neck out for President Obama.

Boucher endorsed Obama last January -- well before he had secured the Democratic primary -- and he stuck to that endorsement even when his congressional district swung heavily for Hillary Clinton a month later during Virginia's primary.

Boucher's work on the cap-and-trade legislation is politically risky as well -- his district is home to 5,000 coal workers in an industry that hasn't entirely warmed to the bill yet.

The National Republican Congressional Committee has hammered Boucher with a series of news releases this week criticizing him for his role in passing the bill.

Obama has made the bill one of his legislative priorities for this Congress, along with health care reform. Two weeks ago he invited all of the Democrats on the Energy and Commerce Committee to the White House for a meeting.

"We spent an hour and a half with him discussing the bill," Boucher said. "He asked informed questions, but he left it to us to work out the bill. ... He understood the importance of having business support and he supported my efforts to bring that support."

LaHood's call, then, may well have been part of a keen political strategy to keep a key vote in a coal district on the Obama administration's side.

Boucher, who said he did not know about the White House call, attributed it to two things:

"First of all, it is a signal of how important the administration views passing this bill. The president indicated to us he has two major remaining legislative priorities for this Congress. The first of these is the cap and trade bill for the control of greenhouse emissions. The second is health care reform. ... He was encouraging us in the meeting to move forward as quickly as possible on the climate change bill so we can turn our attention in June to the health care reform.

"I think the other reason you got that call is because the president has personally told me several times how important he thinks my role is in this."