By Richard Cowan and Timothy Gardner
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will advance climate-change legislation quickly, aiming to pass a bill as early as next week, committee Chair Barbara Boxer said on Thursday.
"We're going forward hopefully early next week, that's our plan," Boxer told reporters after three days of hearings on the bill she and Senator John Kerry wrote to reduce U.S. industry emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases by 20 percent by 2020, from 2005 levels.
Boxer said work sessions could start by Tuesday.
Republicans, who largely oppose mandating curbs on the carbon emissions that are blamed for global warming, said they might thwart Boxer's fast-track schedule by staying away from next week's work sessions.
A "boycott is on the table as an option," said Matt Dempsey, a spokesman for Republicans on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. "We're certainly heading in that direction."
Under committee rules, at least two of the panel's seven Republicans would have to attend for the work sessions to get under way, Dempsey said.
Boxer hopes to advance the bill out of her committee promptly, even if it is just with Democratic votes, to give a boost to an international climate change conference in December in Copenhagen. Hopes are fading the full Senate will pass the bill this year.
An international group of military experts called on Thursday for an "ambitious" international climate change agreement in Copenhagen. The Military Advisory Council of The Hague-based Institute for Environmental Security said a failure to deal with climate change problems "will be very costly in terms of destabilizing nations ... retarding development and providing the required military response."
REPUBLICANS WANT MORE DETAILED ANALYSIS
During this week's Senate hearings, Republicans have been pressing for more detailed analysis of the complex legislation from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Senator James Inhofe, the senior Republican on Boxer's committee, told reporters, "If we all (Republicans) agree that we don't have enough analysis, then certainly we want to give enough time to get adequate analysis."
EPA head Lisa Jackson testified it could take "four to five weeks to run the full economic modeling" on the bill. Republicans argue they need the detailed information to gauge the economic impact, although a preliminary analysis by the EPA found the Senate bill was similar to a House-passed bill, which the agency said would cost consumers about $80 to $111 a
year.
Republicans argue the U.S. legislation would hurt some regions of the country more than others and result in job losses and higher consumer prices as industry is forced to use more expensive alternative energy and move away from high-polluting oil and coal. They reject Democratic claims the climate control bill will create millions of jobs in alternative energy.
Senator George Voinovich of Ohio said Democrats had fashioned a bill that would help the east and west coasts of the United States, at the expense of Southern and Midwestern regions that are more reliant on coal.
"California's going to make out like a bandit with this legislation," the lawmaker said, glaring at Boxer who represents that state.
Boxer said an EPA analysis did not find the bill would favor some regions of the country over others.
Referring to the possibility Republicans would prevent the committee from acting on the bill soon, Boxer said: "I hope we don't see a boycott of a markup of a landmark bill. That would be tragic." She added Republicans should attend upcoming work sessions prepared with amendments to be voted on.
A prominent Democrat on Boxer's committee, Senator Max Baucus, said this week he had serious concerns with the bill's 2020 timetable for reducing carbon emissions. As chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Baucus also could delay full Senate passage of a climate bill.
(Editing by Peter Cooney)
