Following last week's approval of climate change legislation by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee despite a Republican boycott, the issue will be examined Tuesday by two panels that are considered more moderate.

The Finance Committee -- chaired by Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., a key coal-state senator -- will look at how jobs could be affected. The panel will hear from union and nuclear energy officials, as well as conservatives and industry critics of the cap-and-trade bill co-sponsored by Foreign Relations Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., and Environment and Public Works Chairwoman Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. That bill was reported out Thursday in Boxer's panel without participation from the committee's seven Republicans, who were seeking additional cost analysis from the EPA.

Baucus was the only Democrat on EPW to oppose vote against the bill, though he has predicted a bill will be approved this Congress. He opposes the Kerry-Boxer requirement that U.S. greenhouse gas emissions be reduced 20 percent below 2005 levels by 2020. Baucus filed an amendment lowering that requirement to 17 percent, with a trigger of up to 20 percent depending on emissions reductions agreed to by other nations. But the protest from Republicans prevented any of the roughly 80 amendments Democrats filed from being considered.

Also on Tuesday, the Energy and Natural Resources Committee will hold a hearing on policy options for addressing climate change.

The panel in June approved an energy bill backed by the committee's leaders in both parties which Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., wants to merge with cap-and-trade.

Energy and Natural Resources ranking member Lisa Murkowski of Alaska is a potential Republican backer of a cap-and-trade bill, but she has pushed for the debate to include alternatives. She said last week's move by Boxer's panel "dooms that particular legislation" and might stall the climate debate in the Senate. Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., and Murkowski supported a cap-and-trade bill last Congress that had less aggressive targets than the Kerry-Boxer bill.

Off the Hill Tuesday, the Council on Foreign Relations is holding a conference on the upcoming U.N. climate talks in Copenhagen. Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., co-sponsor of the House climate change bill and chairman of the Select Energy Independence and Global Warming Committee, will speak in the morning on "Connecting Domestic and International Action."

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