Tulsa World: Inhofe leads Republican boycott against climate change bill

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Inhofe leads Republican boycott against climate change bill

Jim Inhofe

By JIM MYERS World Washington Bureau
Published: 11/3/2009 9:40 AM
Last Modified: 11/3/2009 5:32 PM

WASHINGTON - U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe led a Republican boycott Tuesday of a key committee to force a more complete analysis of a sweeping climate change bill.

After opening up the session, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, appealed to the Oklahoma Republican and others to return to the panel’s hearing room.

Boxer defended the current analysis of the measure by Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., and also scheduled a Tuesday afternoon meeting with the Environmental Protection Agency to go over its work.

She also announced that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has agreed to have another analysis of the bill completed after he joins together the product of her committee with that of other panels.

“We must move forward,” Boxer said, citing the urgency of the issue.

In a written statement, Inhofe said Republicans welcomed Boxer’s announcement to delay today’s business meeting.

“The Republicans want to have a markup of the Kerry-Boxer bill,” he said.

“So the question before us is how the committee proceeds.”

Inhofe said there is enough time before a major climate meeting in Copenhagen next month to have the EPA conduct a full economic analysis of the bill.

“We hope Chairman Boxer accommodates this request so we can move forward to markup with a complete analysis of Kerry-Boxer’s impact on jobs, consumers, ratepayers, families, and small businesses,” he said.

Inhofe, who is the top Republican on the Senate panel, is a leading skeptic of man-made global warming claims.

By JIM MYERS World Washington Bureau

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Reader comments for this story have been moved to the most updated version of the story, now under the headline "Inhofe vows to continue boycott of climate bill," which was published on 11/4/2009. So far, 296 comments have been made.