Senate Deliberations

If it weren’t for mixed messages, the US Senate wouldn’t be sending any messages at all.

Yesterday, WaPo ran a story about how the Senate, once hot to trot on passing a climate change bill, had decided to rein it in. Climate legislation got its first hearing before Senator Barbara Boxer’s Environment committee on Tuesday. Afterwords, Grist’s Kate Sheppared noted, Boxer’s office was planning to vote on a bill in “early August.”

Two days later, Boxer announced that they’ll have a bill “as soon as we get back” from the Senate’s last-of-summer break. Translation: See you in September. A final vote may not come before December’s UN conference in Copenhagen on climate change.

Said Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), “I don’t even expect it to come up this year.”

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| The day before the Senate took up hearings on HR 2454, the Climate Bill sent over from the House, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) fired up the troops with this call to arms: “As a legislator, everything is negotiable.”

Just so. That’s exactly what has so many supporters of climate change legislation wondering if the bill won’t turn out to be a sheep in sheep’s clothing — thanks to the efforts of bleating heart liberals.

Of course, the already-watered-down bill from the House could be strengthened as it works its way through the Senate. According to Sky 1′s Jason Kowalski, that may be the case for draft legislation coming from the Environment and Public Works Committee, which was first at bat for the Senators, in a hearing yesterday.

Here are the prepared remarks of the Committee’s leadership, Chair Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and ranking minority member, James Inhofe (R-OK), as well as from members of the two panels that testified.
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