The Democrats easily passed a test vote on climate change but the failed to muster any GOP support even from the moderates.

From the Politico

Senate Democrats won an early test vote Tuesday in support of climate change legislation, but the partisan tone was ominous for President Barack Obama if he is to really move ahead on this issue while also coping with a weakened economy.

The 54-43 roll call came as top Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee unveiled their own ambitious plan to reduce greenhouse gases, promote energy efficiency and require the greater use of renewable resources to generate the nation’s electricity.

Chairman Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) set out a schedule of moving to a full committee markup by mid-May, but the early skirmishes on the Senate floor are telling of the steep road ahead.

Not a single Republican joined with Democrats in supporting a relatively innocuous budget amendment giving Senate committees the flexibility to design a cap-and-trade system that does not increase “the overall burden on consumers.”

Waxman’s California colleague Barbara Boxer, Environment and Public Works Committee chairwoman, accused her conservative critics of inventing a “new vocabulary” to portray climate legislation as a national energy sales tax. But she lost even Republican moderates such as Maine Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, who backed a more narrowly written alternative opposing any policy change that would result in higher gasoline prices or electric rates.

If the Senate is so concerned about greenhouse gases then why don’t they pass legislation that would reduce the amount of time it takes to approve and build nuclear power plants which produce zero greenhouse gases as well as providing cheap electricity? 

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