Delay In Climate-Change Bill

Last week, Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), chair of the Environment & Public Works Committee, and John Kerry (D-Mass.), chair of the Foreign Relations Committee, said they would put off introduction of climate-change legislation in the Senate until late September. They blamed the delay on Kerry’s hip surgery, conflicts over timing with health care legislation, and the death of Massachusetts Sen. Edward M. Kennedy.

Before Congress’ recess in August, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said he wanted climate-change legislation on the Senate floor by September. Reid has now offered more time to “work on the final details” of a bill, Boxer and Kerry said in a joint statement.

Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), climate-change skeptic and ranking minority member of the Environment & Public Works Committee, however, said the delay was “emblematic of the division and disarray in the Democratic Party” and showed the majority lacked votes to clear a bill.

Meanwhile, more than 300 community and environmental groups and five state attorneys general have written Boxer, urging her to toughen provisions in the climate-change bill that cleared the House in June. And the National Association of Manufacturers and other industry groups have announced a national effort to oppose provisions in the House bill, calling it an “antijobs” bill that will raise energy costs.

Putting added pressure on Congress, EPA released a proposal late last month to give the agency authority to draw up its own climate-change regulations under the Clean Air Act if Congress fails to act.