UPDATE 1-US Senate panel approves Democratic climate bill
By Richard Cowan
WASHINGTON, Nov 5 (Reuters) - A key U.S. Senate environmentcommittee approved a Democratic climate change bill on Thursdaythat would require industry to cut emissions of carbon dioxideand other greenhouse gases 20 percent by 2020 from 2005levels.
The bill approved by the Environment and Public WorksCommittee will now become one of several initiatives in theSenate aimed at attacking global warming. But they are unlikelyto produce legislation that would be voted on by the fullSenate until next year at the earliest.
With Republicans boycotting the environment panel'smeasure, saying more analysis of the legislation was needed, 10Democrats approved the bill and one Democrat, Senator MaxBaucus, voted against it.
Senator John Kerry, who co-authored the bill with fellowDemocrat Barbara Boxer, is leading an effort with someRepublicans and the White House to draft a compromise.
Democrats in Congress, working on a major plank ofPresident Barack Obama's agenda, have been anxious to show atleast some progress on enacting a domestic climate change billbefore Dec. 7, when an international global warming summitconvenes in Copenhagen.
While there were scores of amendments to the bill thatenvironment committee members wanted to debate and vote onbefore approving it, they were unable to because of theRepublican boycott.
Under committee rules, at least two Republicans had to bepresent to debate and vote on changing the bill.
Boxer delayed work on the legislation for two days, sayingshe was giving Republicans the opportunity to collect moreinformation from EPA officials and to offer their ownamendments.
But Republicans did not take her up on the offer and byThursday, Boxer had lost patience with the delay.
She opened Thursday's work session reading from a letterfrom John Rowe, Chief Executive of Exelon (EXC.N), one of thecountry's largest utilities.
Calling the bill written by Boxer and Kerry "an excellentstarting point," Rowe wrote, "We urge you as chairman, as wellas your colleagues, to take the steps necessary to order thebill reported by the committee so that climate legislation canbe considered by the full Senate."
Baucus' vote against the bill reflected the difficultiesahead in crafting a measure that would attract the 60 votesneeded for passage by the Senate.
As an influential moderate Democrat, Baucus laid outchanges he would seek, including a weaker carbon-reductiontarget. Other Midwestern and Southern senators from statesheavily reliant on coal will seek their own changes, whichcould upset liberals now supporting the bill.
(Editing by Russell Blinch and Philip Barbara)
Source: Reuters
