by Agence France-Presse
WASHINGTON—The U.S. Senate’s two principal authors of legislation to battle climate change said Tuesday they were putting the last touches on their bill and hoped to unveil it next week.
“I feel very optimistic about the progress that we’re making. I think that folks are coming together, but there are still some hurdles,” said Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair John Kerry (D-Mass.).
Asked when he and Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham (S.C.) would make the measure public, Kerry replied, “We hope next week.”
Graham said he and Kerry were reaching out to colleagues and major players in the climate-change debate with an eye on introducing the legislation, which quite likely will not see major action by the Senate until June.
“We’ve got some more work to do, but hopefully next week,” Graham told reporters. “We’re locking down a few issues, but we’re getting there.”
Introducing the measure would launch a months-long process that would see the legislation’s cost and scope evaluated by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office and the Environmental Protection Agency. It would also likely need to be taken up by key committees of jurisdiction, which could modify the bill before a final Senate vote.
The House of Representatives passed its version of the legislation last June, creating a cap-and-trade market for greenhouse-gas emissions blamed for global warming—a different strategy than the one being pursued in the Senate.
“Cap-and-trade as we know it is over, there’ll be some limited trading in the utility area,” said Graham, who declined to elaborate.
The Senate and House would have to pass identical legislation to send it to President Obama to sign into law.
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