Senate Panel to Move on Climate Bill

So says Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), head of the Environment and Public Works Committee, who announced this afternoon that the panel will hold hearings on Boxer’s climate change bill over the course of three days later this month.

The announcement is good news for environmentalists, who watched House lawmakers pass a comprehensive (if watered down) climate change bill over the summer, only to see the Senate dragging its feet even to unveil a bill.

That, Boxer says, is about to change. “Momentum for this effort is growing every day,” she said in a statement, “and we are broadening and deepening our coalition with each step in the process.”

The first day’s testimony, scheduled for Oct. 27, will feature Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson, and Jon Wellinghoff, chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Witnesses on the 28th and 29th have yet to be named.

The committee will mark up the bill “as soon as possible after our hearings,” Boxer said.