WASHINGTON — Key Democrats from industrial and oil states threw their support behind a draft climate bill Monday as a House panel began work on legislation that would impose the first nationwide limits on greenhouse gases.
Democratic sponsors of the 948-page bill called it essential to shift the nation away from fossil fuels to cleaner energy sources. Republicans said it would send energy prices soaring.
“Our nation is at a crossroads,” said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., the committee’s chairman. “We can continue to look the other way and leave these problems to our children, or we can adopt a new energy policy for America.”
Waxman has spearheaded delicate closed-door negotiations with other Democrats on the Energy and Commerce Committee, hoping to structure the bill so as to get enough support to push it to the House floor, despite expected Republican opposition.
