Obama Officials Urge Senate to Pass Climate Bill. By Darren Samuelsohn, Greenwire, July 7, 2009. "Four top Obama administration officials urged the Senate on Tuesday to pass sweeping climate and energy legislation that builds off momentum created last month by the Democrat-led House... 'Denial of the climate change problem will not change our destiny,' said Energy Secretary Steven Chu, moments after describing the recorded loss of half the summer Arctic polar ice cap since the 1950s, fast-rising seas and the prospect of a more than 10-degree-Fahrenheit increase in global air temperatures. 'A comprehensive energy and climate bill that caps and then reduces carbon emissions will,' Chu added. 'America has the opportunity to lead a new industrial revolution of creating sustainable, clean energy. We can sit on the sidelines and deny the scientific facts, or we can get in the game and play to win.' Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and U.S. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson also pushed the Senate committee to act on an issue that sits atop the president's domestic and international agenda... Several Republicans urged Boxer to write a more expansive bill that promotes domestic energy production. 'Why are we ignoring the cheap energy solution to global warming, which is nuclear power?' argued Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee. Republicans also demanded that Boxer hold more hearings on the specific legislative text she plans to hold a vote on... Six Senate committees are expected to play a role in crafting the climate and energy bill, including Boxer's panel. The others: Agriculture; Commerce, Science and Transportation; Energy and Natural Resources; Finance; and Foreign Relations."