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Post a commentDems push climate bill out of committee
WASHINGTON - Senate Democrats sidestepped a Republican boycott yesterday, pushing a climate bill out of committee in an early step on a long and contentious road to passage. Other committees still must weigh-in on the measure, but the partisan antics early on threatened to cast a pall over the bill - one of President Obama's top priorities - as it makes its way to the Senate floor and as nations prepare to meet in Copenhagen, Denmark, next month to hammer out a new international treaty to slow climate change.
Sen. Barbara Boxer, chairman of the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee, had delayed the crucial vote for days because of a Republican protest over whether the cost of the legislation had been fully examined. But the California Democrat yesterday moved quickly to pass the bill, which for the first time would set mandatory limits on heat-trapping gases, without any of the seven GOP senators on the panel present. The measure cleared the panel on a 11-1 vote.
Boxer said the Republican demand for more analysis was "duplicative and a waste of taxpayer dollars." Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has agreed to do a full analysis on the final version of the legislation.
"Advancing the bill is a necessary step on the road to garnering the 60 votes we need," said Boxer, who introduced the bill with Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., in late September. "We are pleased that despite the Republican boycott, we have had the will to move this bill forward."
Former Vice President Al Gore, in town to promote his new book on global warming, "Our Choice," said in an interview with the Associated Press that he doubted Boxer's move would have any lingering consequences.
