Climate Bill Out of Committee, But at What Cost?

Senate Environment and Public Works Chairwoman Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., resorted to a strong-arm procedural maneuver Thursday to push global warming legislation through her committee, alienating Republicans and frustrating some moderate Democrats.

The panel's ranking Republican, James M. Inhofe of Oklahoma, branded Boxer's decision to approve the bill without Republican participation a "nuclear option." Republicans have been boycotting the markup, calling for further EPA analysis of the bill's cost.

"This is not a procedure we wanted," Boxer told the panel's Democrats, acknowledging that it may complicate efforts to pass climate legislation in the Senate. "It's a procedure that was available to us. It was available to our predecessors. That was why they wrote it. We need to move. The Senate should not come to a standstill."

Committee rules require at least two members of the minority to be present for votes on amendments and to approve legislation. After Republicans made it clear that they would stay away from the markup indefinitely, Boxer used a broad interpretation of the rules that allow the committee to report legislation out with a simple majority vote on the bill -- but no votes on amendments.

Democrats did not dispute Republican claims that it was unprecedented for a chairman of the Environment panel to proceed with a markup without minority participation.

"This was an extraordinary experience, and in many ways a bonding experience," said Boxer, a California Democrat. But even fellow Democrats on the panel were uncomfortable with the breakdown of bipartisan cooperation.

"I don't like this process and I don't think any of us do," said Thomas R. Carper, D-Del., who has worked for months with coal-state senators to develop provisions and amendments that could attract their votes.

One committee Democrat, former chairman Max Baucus of Montana, voted against the measure. Baucus supports action to address global warming, but he had filed more than 20 amendments and said he could not support the underlying bill without amendment.

The bill would restrict emissions of gases that contribute to global warming, require polluters to hold government-issued emissions allowances and establish a market for trading those credits.