Michigan’s Democratic Senators Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow are part of a new push to dilute the climate change bills that are moving through Congress, my colleague Mike Lillis at The Washington Independent reports.

Last week Levin and Stabenow joined a dozen other Senate Democrats in asking their party leaders to rewrite the Senate climate bill so that it will cost coal-using industries less.

According to the Center for Responsive Politics coal dependent electric utilities are among the top donors for Michigan’s Senate delegation. In the 2010 campaign cycle PACs and individuals associated with DTE Energy gave $28,000 to Levin, ranking as his 9th largest donor while Consumers Energy ranked 14th with $22,300 in contributions. DTE Energy gave $31,400 to Stabenow and was her 8th largest contributor.

According to Kate Sheppard of Mother Jones, the senators are concerned that the current cap and trade bill will have a disproportionate affect on coal burning utilities.

In particular, the senators oppose the way that carbon credits are allocated in the House and the proposed Senate bill, arguing that it unfairly harms states who rely on coal for their energy needs. Their concern is that the House bill and the Senate bill that advanced last week would make higher-emitting utilities—those that burn coal—pay more under cap and trade. Under the House and Senate proposals, the formula by which local electricity distributors receive free credits is based 50 percent on their total energy sales and 50 percent on their total emissions. The coal state senators want the allocations to be based 100 percent on emissions—meaning that utilities that emit more would get more free credits.