Washington (Platts)--25Sep2009/612 pm EDT/2212 GMT

Two US Senate committee chairmen plan to roll out a long-anticipated climate change bill on September 30, just in time to keep their pledge of introducing it in September.

Democratic Senators Barbara Boxer of California and John Kerry of Massachusetts will introduce their portion of a cap-and-trade bill on September 30, Kerry's office said Friday.

The measure has been in the works for months, and Environment and Public Works Committee Chairwoman Boxer has said it will adhere to the same basic structure as one produced by the House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee in the spring.

The EPW panel claims jurisdiction over how the measure's emissions allowances will be distributed, though Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, Democrat-Montana, has said he plans to produce a package addressing this as well.

Boxer has also entertained the idea of including a so-called price collar to ensure allowance prices remain between a certain maximum and minimum.

The committee's Republican staff says they have not seen any portion of the bill, but plan to hold press conferences next week to combat it.

"We're anxious to see what the Democrats have in terms of a bill," said Matt Dempsey, a spokesman for the panel's top Republican, James Inhofe.

The Oklahoma Republican has famously called climate change a "hoax," and has not been involved in any way in crafting the Boxer-Kerry bill.

--Jean Chemnick, jean_chemnick@platts.com