THOUGH SHORT ON DETAILS, BOXER OPTIMISTIC ON EMISSIONS BILL

摘要

Jurisdictional issues are setting up a complicated path for comprehensive climate and energy legislation in the Senate, but Environment and Public Works Committee Chair Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) remains confident about the prospects for passage of a bipartisan bill that includes a cap-and-trade emissions reduction scheme. During a March 19 press conference, Boxer was characteristically vague about the specifics of emissions legislation that will originate in her committee, telling reporters than no provisions for allowance allocation or emissions targets have been set for the forthcoming legislation. Boxer said she has been meeting with colleagues both within the Administration and on Capitol Hill-specifically House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.). "We're working together," Boxer said.rnShe also made it clear that the House and Senate panels would be "moving forward with a strategy that's very different than the last one," referring to the Senate's approach last year to the "Climate Security Act," which was approved by the EPW Committee but later died a high profile death on the floor. In retrospect, many Senators viewed that bill to be too prescriptive, leading Boxer and others to push for a more general approach this time in hopes of garnering more bipartisan support.