), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and Sen. Jay Rockefeller Jay RockefellerLobbying world Overnight Tech: Senators place holds on FCC commissioner Overnight Tech: Senate panel to vote on Dem FCC commissioner MORE (D-W.Va.), chairman of the Commerce Committee, who both represent states with significant coal industries, would like to proceed cautiously. Hanging in the balance is one of President Barack Obama Barack ObamaObama goes golfing on Friday Okla. introduces Obama impeachment measure over bathroom directive Adviser: Obama will keep low profile after term ends MORE’s top domestic priorities, as well as the president’s credibility among potential signatories to an international climate pact. Five of the six chairmen tried to patch up their differences Monday during a meeting in the office of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid Harry ReidLake Mead hits record low water level Dems: Warren ready to get off sidelines Clinton: 'There is no way I won't be' nominee MORE (D-Nev.), who is trying to bring his senior colleagues together before sketching out a plan on how to proceed in 2010, when lawmakers will work with one eye on the midterm elections. Baucus, who was the only Democrat to vote against Boxer’s climate bill in the Environment and Public Works Committee earlier this month, would also prefer to proceed more slowly on a broad bill next year, according to a Democratic source familiar with talks among the chairmen. The Senate Finance Committee likely won't begin deliberations on the climate bill until January, according to Sen. Barbara Boxer (D., Calif.), one of its sponsors. United Nations leaders had called for a new, binding global agreement in Copenhagen to set caps on greenhouse-gas emissions. Legislation on health care, overhauling financial markets and job creation will be considered before the Senate takes up a measure to cap emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases linked to climate change, Senate Democratic leaders said Tuesday. "By the time we turn around, it's March," Ms. Boxer said of the likely timetable.
– Senate Democrats have announced that they won't be debating a major climate bill until sometime in the spring. The delay, which reduces America's bargaining power at next month's Copenhagen conference, reflects weakening support for the controversial "cap-and-trade" bill as unemployment remains high, the Wall Street Journal notes. The bill strategy calls for capping overall greenhouse-gas emissions, but would allow companies to buy and trade permits allowing certain amounts of emissions. President Obama is working with Senate leaders to get the bill through as quickly as possible, said a White House spokesman. The delay, however, has raised fears that the Senate may end up putting off debating the bill for as long as 2011 to avoid holding a vote just before next year's midterm elections. "There would be nothing better than for us to talk about over the summer than Democrats pushing a huge new energy tax,” one Republican leadership aide told The Hill.