Earth Equity News

Senate Dems Gird for Climate Battle. By Darren Samuelsohn, ClimateWire, July 21, 2009. "When the Senate debated climate change legislation earlier this decade, it generally was understood the bill had no chance of becoming law. Floor debates in 2003 and 2005 came about after high-profile senators forced votes to score political points and embarrass the George W. Bush administration. Just one committee wrote last year's cap-and-trade bill, which crashed on the floor and became a political liability for Senate Democrats. This time around, Senate Democrats are trying another approach. They have set out to work as a team, with six separate committees trying to write language that can build ownership among influential swing votes well before the floor debate begins. 'To me, the more committees that are involved, the happier I am, because you get more and more colleagues that get to understand it, that get to be part of it,' Environment and Public Works Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) told reporters last week... It was Boxer's committee alone that approved the climate bill before last year's floor debate... This year, the EPW Committee is working alongside other powerful panels: Agriculture, Commerce, Energy and Natural Resources, Finance, and Foreign Relations. For vote counters, that means any number of fence-sitters -- such as Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.), Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) and Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) -- will have a crack at the climate bill in its earliest stages."