Barbara Boxer Used Nuclear Option to Push Cap and Trade Through Committee

Last Thursday while we all focused on the House Health care bill, Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Chair of the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee used the "nuclear option" to push the Cap-and-Trade climate bill out of committee. The nuclear option is when a party proceeds without the minority party and votes on a proposed bill.

Although Committee rules require that two Republicans be present and vote, Boxer had warned she would not let this rule stop her from passing out of committee the bill that she and Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) had proposed which would set mandatory limits on heat-trapping gases. Without any of the seven GOP senators on the panel present, she called for the vote and which was approved 11-1.

Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), the ranking Republican on the committee, implored the panel to not proceed with what he called a "nuclear option" minutes before the vote. He left shortly after making his statement. Committee Republican were concerned that the cost of the legislation had not been fully examined. Boxer argued that the Republican request for more analysis was "duplicative and waste of taxpayer dollars." Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) voted against the legislation, saying that concerns he had with the bill were not fully addressed.

By moving the bill out of committee without Republicans present, the Democrats could not amend the legislation, and many Democrats expressed disappointment that they did not have a chance to improve the bill. Baucus said the bill's calls for a 20% reduction in greenhouse gases by 2020 and he preferred a lower target of 17% with a trigger to raise it to 20% if other countries agreed to the same requirement. Now the legislation will be merged with legislation written by five other Senate committees. And in the hopes of broadening support, Kerry announced Wednesday he was working with Connecticut independent Joseph Lieberman, South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham and the White House to secure votes.

The Senate is pushing the bill because it is one of President Barack Obama's top priorities. Senate democrats want to have a the vote to signal other countries in advance of a climate change conference next month in Copenhagen, Denmark next month to hammer out a new international treaty to slow climate change. The House in June narrowly passed its version of the bill.

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