For the past three days Democrats on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee have waited for Republicans to come to the table to participate in the mark-up up of comprehensive climate and energy legislation. This morning the wait was over and Democrats moved forward on their own to pass the legislation out of committee, a controversial move that will play a role in shaping the negotiations and debate as the bill moves forward and eventually to a full Senate floor vote.
Senate Majority leader Harry Reid apparently gave EPW chairwomen Barbara Boxer the green light to go ahead and vote as Republicans on the committee continued to boycott the mark-up and clamor for more comprehensive EPA analysis of costs that will result from the almost 1000-page legislation.
Reid and Senator John Kerry indicated earlier this week that the EPA will do additional analysis before the Senate floor debate on the bill, but not until the legislation has moved through multiple committees.
Several important committees have jurisdiction and will mark-up the climate bill, not just EPW, including the powerful Finance Committee, headed by Senator Max Baucus and the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, headed by influential Senator Jeff Bingaman.
Darren Samuelsohn of E&E news (subs req) reported on the breaking news this morning:
Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Democrats quashed a
three-day Republican boycott and passed global warming legislation
today using a procedural move that could undermine support from
moderate lawmakers should the bill reach the floor.
Chairwoman
Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and nine Democrats signed off on the climate
bill -- without considering amendments -- after trying without success
to wait out Republicans.
Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) voted
against the legislation because he could not get his issues addressed,
including a less aggressive set of emission limits in 2020. Baucus
explained that he would play a role as the debate moves forward as
chairman of the Finance Committee and as a senior member of the
Agriculture panel.
"I'm going to work to get climate
change legislation that can get 60 votes through the U.S. Senate and
signed into law," Baucus added. Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) did not vote.
Ranking
member James Inhofe (R-Okla.) urged Boxer not to pass the bill, adding
that Republicans still hold firm in their belief that U.S. EPA should
conduct a more thorough economic analysis before committee members vote.
"In
the history of this, we've not been able to find a time when a bill has
been marked up without minority participation," Inhofe said.
Boxer
and other Democratic allies insisted that the bill is but one step in
the process and that EPA had already done enough work to give lawmakers
adequate information.
"We believe that to go back to
another analysis when we already have an unprecedented amount of work
based on 350,000 pages would be a waste of taxpayer dollars, would be
duplicative," Boxer said.
Boxer's quick move has brought
criticism from several moderate GOP senators, including Lindsey Graham
of South Carolina, Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, Lisa Murkowski of
Alaska, Richard Lugar of Indiana, and Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe
of Maine. All of the lawmakers are seen as critical to reach 60 votes
but signed onto letters this week urging EPA to complete its analysis
before the EPW panel moved forward.
Rebecca Lutzy is the Content and Community Manager at The Energy Collective and a Ph.D. candidate at Princeton University. Her research focuses on Congress, politics, and climate and energy policy, particularly low-carbon technology deployment.