Democrats won't delay climate bill
By JENNIFER A. DLOUHY
Houston Chronicle
Nov. 2, 2009, 10:17PM

WASHINGTON — Democratic leaders of a key Senate committee on Monday vowed to forge ahead with climate change legislation despite a planned boycott by Republicans on the panel.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., said the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee she heads would begin working on the global warming bill today — with or without the Republicans.

“We look forward to working with them if they decide to participate,” Boxer said. “But if they do not, we will move forward in accordance with the rules of the Senate and of this committee.”

The seven Republicans on the panel, led by James Inhofe of Oklahoma, had hoped their boycott would encourage the Environmental Protection Agency to complete a new analysis of the price tag of the climate change bill.

They complain that an earlier report by the EPA showing that the bill would cost the average household about $80 to $100 more a year was based primarily on climate change legislation passed by the House in June, rather than solely on the similar Senate measure co-sponsored by Boxer and Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.

Inhofe joined Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, and other Republicans in insisting on “a full and complete analysis of the likely effects” of the measure.

“We are deeply troubled by the (Democrats') failure to accommodate a request … for a complete analysis of the bill's projected impacts on the nation,” they said in a letter to Boxer.

The group added a warning that if Boxer tries to advance the legislation out of her committee without “a satisfactory analysis” and bipartisan involvement, it will “severely damage, rather than help, the chances of enacting changes to our nation's climate and energy policies.”

In response late Monday, Boxer decided to bring EPA officials before the committee today to discuss the bill's economic effects. She also extended a deadline for Republicans to submit amendments, making it the close of business today.

“We think this is going the extra mile,” Boxer told reporters. “What we're talking about today is reaching out our hand across the aisle, knowing that the studies that have been done ... on this bill really are unprecedented (in scope).”

Boxer said the legislation has already been subject to extensive review, including three days of hearings with testimony from 54 witnesses last week.

“No climate bill has ever had this level of review, and the Obama administration stands behind the EPA's analysis,” Boxer said.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I. said there was no need for “a lengthy, complex ... analysis of something that has already been analyzed.”

Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., said Republicans were behaving “almost like school children.”

He praised Boxer for “being fair, to extend a hand, no matter how many times they rebuff it.”



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