Washington (Platts)--6Jun2008

The heavily anticipated debate in the US Senate over comprehensive
climate change legislation ended Friday as Democrats in the chamber were
unable to muster the 60 votes required to move the bill forward.

The final vote to proceed with the bill was 48-36. Senator Barbara Boxer,
the California Democrat who is the bill's chief sponsor, said had all senators
who favored advancing the bill been present -- including Barak Obama of
Illinois, Hillary Clinton of New York, Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts and
Joseph Biden of Delaware -- the true total of support would have been 54
votes.

Independent Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, one of the bill's key
drafters, also said that Senator John McCain of Arizona would have voted in
favor of advancing debate on the bill as well.

The focus now shifts to 2009, as both presumptive presidential nominees
said they would have voted in favor of further debating the bill.

While presumptive Democratic nominee Obama has a more stringent plan than
presumptive Republican nominee McCain, they both share a goal of mandating
emissions cuts. Their policies will be a huge departure from the voluntary
plans of President George Bush.

"We're getting ready for the next president of the United States," Boxer
said. "This issue is front-and-center on the minds of the American people."

Massachusetts Democrat John Kerry concurred, adding "We're going to pass
a bill next year."

The vote marked the conclusion to an extremely contentious week filled
with spats over federal judges and a rare nine-hour bill reading.

Conservative Democrats emerged as the critical swing votes as their votes
split on the bill (S. 3036).

The legislation would have created a greenhouse gas emissions trading
market worth $6.7 trillion over nearly 40 years and it would have mandated
emissions reduce to 71% below 2005 levels by 2050. Major industrial emitters
like heavy industry, oil refiners, natural gas processors, and coal-fired
power plants would have come under the carbon cap.

Boxer introduced the bill with the backing of Majority Leader Harry Reid,
a Nevada Democrat. It is based on a bill (S. 2191) that passed the committee
and was authored by Lieberman and Virginia Republican John Warner.

Republicans held up debate on the bill when Minority Leader Mitch
McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, requested that the 492-page bill be read
over a nine-hour period on Wednesday. He held up the floor process over a
dispute with Reid over when three federal judges would be confirmed.

Reid saw the move as a clear sign that the Republicans would stall at
every moment despite professing a deep desire to have an open debate. Reid
"filed for cloture," which meant that 60 votes would be needed to move to
debate amendments. The amendments could only be chosen by Reid, a process
known as "filling the amendment tree."

--Alexander Duncan, alexander_duncan@platts.com