Senators look past Barbara Boxer's climate bill

While Sen. Barbara Boxer was celebrating her committee’s passage of a sweeping climate change bill Thursday, other Democrats and Republicans were already looking for a Plan B. Rank-and-file members from both parties dismissed the Boxer bill, coal-state senators were unhappy and many said Boxer’s move to approve the bill without any Republicans even in the committee room had poisoned the process. “It dooms that particular legislation. The question is what comes next,” said Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski. “We will see what Plan B is.” Moderates are looking to Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) to come up with that Plan B, which may include more incentives for nuclear power, renewable fuels and maybe even domestic drilling to draw support of moderate Democrats and some Republicans. Key Democrats said the Boxer legislation was moving too fast for some coal and manufacturing states...read more