The Environment and Public Works Committee on Nov. 5 approved comprehensive climate change legislation by a vote to 11-1, with no Republicans voting. But the bill faces an uphill battle, with little GOP support. Moderate Max Baucus (D-Mont.), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, was the lone Democrat to oppose the bill.
Republicans on the panel, led by ranking member James Inhofe (R-Okla.) boycott the meetings held over three days to mark up the bill and said that more analysis from the Environmental Protection Agency was needed. Committee Chair Barbara Boxer countered that extensive analysis had already been done and that “another EPA analysis now would be duplicative and a waste of taxpayer dollars.”