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US Senate Republicans Threaten To Block Climate Panel Vote

By Ian Talley, Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- U.S. Senate Republicans on the environmental panel are prepared to block action on a landmark climate bill, the ranking committee member said Friday.

If the majority doesn't allow enough time to review the legislation or provide an adequate economic analysis, Sen. James Inhofe (R., Okla.) said all seven Republicans on the Environment and Public Works Committee are ready to prevent the panel from a planned mark-up of the climate bill by not attending the hearings.

Under Senate rules, the committee needs at least two minority members to have a quorum for a vote.

Inhofe's threat comes just hours before Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D., Calif.) is expected to release a version of the legislation the panel will consider in coming weeks. Boxer is also planning to provide a summary analysis of the legislation from the Environmental Protection Agency.

"We are in a position to stop a mark up, the same as the Democrats stopped our mark up" of air pollution legislation several years ago, Inhofe said. Objecting to the Clear Skies proposal in 2004-2005, Democrats delayed the mark up of the Republican legislation in their effort to prevent the legislation from being passed.

"We're not being unreasonable, we're just saying that the only leverage we have is the quorum leverage, and obviously if we just get stonewalled, we'll use it," he said.

The EPA's analysis, due out late Friday, isn't expected to be a comprehensive economic study of the proposed climate legislation, but rather a "meta-analysis, " Republican staff said. Such a review wouldn't be adequate, they said. However, if the EPA conducted an analysis such as the detailed one it provided for the House-passed bill, that would likely be substantial enough, Inhofe said.

Next week, the environment committee will hold three days of hearings on the proposed climate legislation, with testimony from a witness list that includes top Obama cabinet officials. Boxer said her panel could start considering the mark-up of the bill as soon as the following week.

The Obama Administration and many Democrats leading the charge on climate legislation want the committee to pass legislation before a major international environmental summit in Copenhagen, Denmark this December. With House passage, a Senate bill out of committee and an official declaration from the EPA that greenhouse gases are a public danger before the Copenhagen meeting, Administration officials say the U.S. will have enough political leverage to make major headway on an international climate agreement.

"Everything's geared to Copenhagen," Inhofe said at a press briefing ahead of Boxer's release.

If a delaying tactic is successfully employed, it may have a moderate impact on negotiations.

-By Ian Talley, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9285; ian.talley@dowjones.com;

  (END) Dow Jones Newswires
  10-23-091803ET
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