AFP Story - US Senate to bring climate framework to Copenhagen: Kerry

[beachmom]

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gI7rdmWyhtXrLYYb_uohkpH0_YFg

WASHINGTON — The US Senate will complete the framework of climate change legislation before next month's high-stakes summit in Copenhagen, Senator John Kerry promised UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday.

"We are engaged in the process that will hopefully put us in a position to go to Copenhagen with a sort of framework, or outline, or where the Senate will be heading in its legislation," Kerry told reporters after meeting Ban at the US Capitol.

The Senate has not followed the House of Representatives in finalizing the first-ever US federal caps on carbon emissions, raising fears that the December 7-18 talks in the Danish capital will flop without the world's biggest economy.

Kerry, a former presidential candidate who authored climate change legislation introduced into the Senate, said he told Ban that senators were "engaged in a very intensive process.

"What I wanted to convey to the secretary-general -- and I think it's important to all those taking part in Copenhagen -- is we are very serious about our goal," Kerry said.

I wonder what is going on. There is more at the link about Baucus (sigh, sigh, sigh), but I wonder if this is more messaging for Copenhagen or whether there really is a chance to get 60 votes.

More here:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120136597

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., the author of the Senate bill that would set the first-ever U.S. limits on greenhouse gases, said Tuesday that he hoped to have an outline of where the Senate was headed by the time of the Copenhagen meeting. Kerry, along with Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., are working to piece together a bill that can get the 60 votes needed to pass the Senate.

Kerry's bill last week was voted out of a Senate panel, sidestepping a Republican boycott. But five other committees will also have a say in the legislation.

On Tuesday, Kerry said that the bill would come to the floor "as soon as practical" and he was confident that when it did, the U.S. Senate would do its part.

Lieberman said he expects debate before the full Senate to begin early next year.

"But we will go to Copenhagen with a House-passed climate change bill, some momentum in the Senate ... and the Obama administration clearly supportive of climate change legislation," Lieberman said.