Earth Equity News

Kerry, Graham, Lieberman Announce 'Dual Track' on Climate Bill. By David H. Fahrenthold, WashPost, November 4, 2009. "Even before a Senate committee could begin marking up the 'Kerry-Boxer' climate bill, Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) himself announced a new 'track' of negotiations over climate policy that makes his original bill look somewhat irrelevant. Kerry, appearing at the U.S. Capitol with Sens. Lindsay O. Graham (R-S.C.) and Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.), said the three legislators would work with business groups and the White House to forge a compromise climate measure that could get 60 votes in the Senate. These negotiations would be separate from the work that six different Senate committees are doing on climate legislation, including the markup that the Environment and Public Works committee was supposed to begin Tuesday, the senators said. Republican committee members, demanding more Environmental Protection Agency analysis of the bill's impacts, are boycotting that markup, so progress on the legislation has stalled. Kerry said that the senators were not circumventing that committee's process or ignoring the bill being marked up -- which bears his name, along with that of Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.). 'We're going to take the best [of the bill the committee produces], and we're going to build on it,' he said. Kerry gave few details about when he and the other senators would be done with their work."