links for 2009-11-03

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday urged Congress to take dramatic action to stop climate change, but the political difficulties were evident as Republicans boycotted a Senate committee meeting on a global warming bill.

"We cannot afford missing the objectives in climate protection," Merkel said at a joint session of Congress. "The world will look to us, to the Europeans and to the Americans."

Just before Merkel's speech, Republicans shunned the meeting of the Environment and Public Works Committee to protest the refusal of Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) to order a full new analysis of the legislation. The walkout stalled action on the 959-page bill.

In October, everybody seemed to be doing it — getting into the campaign in New York’s 23rd Congressional District, that is. It was a three-way race among Republican Deirdre Scozzafava, Democrat Bill Owens, and Conservative Doug Hoffman to fill the seat that had been left vacant when President Obama tapped Republican John McHugh as secretary of the Army. Endorsements became such a popular sport for out-of-state Republicans that the special election came to seem a litmus test for conservatives looking at the 2012 presidential race.

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee went ahead and launched its markup of Chairman Barbara Boxer’s (D-Calif.) climate change legislation Tuesday morning, despite a boycott by a majority of the panel’s Republicans.

Barbara Boxer may not only force her climate bill through the Environment and Public Works Committee without any Republican votes; aides say she could also do it without any Republicans in the room at all.

Boxer (D-Calif.) could exploit a loophole in committee rules that will allow her to approve the bill with a simple majority of the 12 Democrats on the committee, even if no Republicans are present. Republicans have vowed to boycott the proceeding.

This end run around Republicans — ignoring the usual rules that require at least two Republicans to be present for a quorum — could further hinder the chances for an already troubled cap-and-trade bill.

“From our viewpoint, such an approach would severely damage, rather than help, the chances of enacting changes to our nation’s climate and energy policies,” wrote the top GOP senators on the six committees with jurisdiction over climate change legislation.

The top Republicans on six committees with jurisdiction over the Senate climate bill have sent a letter to Environment and Public Works committee Chairman Barbara Boxer urging her to back off of her decision to force the bill through the committee without Republican participation.

Democrats will need bipartisan support to overcome a possible filibuster of the legislation when it reaches the full Senate. Sen. John Kerry, (D-Mass.), and Lindsay Graham, (R-S.C.) have been working to build GOP support for the bill.

But Boxer’s push to pass the bill out of committee, warn Republicans, could backfire.

The California Senate on Monday approved major portions of a plan to overhaul the state's water system, putting the Legislature close to agreement after years of discussions about updating the aging infrastructure.
Legislative leaders say their proposals create "coequal goals" of a more reliable water supply system for the state and a restored ecosystem in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. The Senate approved a $9.99 billion bond, a new state agency for the delta and a strict water conservation mandate.