While the full Senate is increasingly unlikely to take up climate legislation in 2009, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., today will sit down with committee leaders to see how far panels can get this year and next.

Reid plans to mold a bill for the floor that takes from the work done by the six committees of jurisdiction as well as from senators striving for common ground.

Foreign Relations Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., and Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Joe Lieberman, I/D-Conn., are trying to get a framework of a deal to Reid before U.S. negotiators travel next month to climate talks in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Lieberman expects Senate debate to start early next year. "But we will go to Copenhagen with a House-passed climate change bill, some momentum in the Senate... and the Obama administration clearly supportive of climate change legislation," Lieberman said. Kerry promised climate legislation would move "as soon as practicable."

Part of the effort from Kerry, Graham and Lieberman will be to add nuclear energy language. Senate Republican Conference Chairman Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., today are introducing a bill that includes some central pieces of a Senate Republican "all of the above" energy blueprint Alexander has touted.

The measure aims to roughly double nuclear power production in 20 years and promote "five mini Manhattan Projects" to spur research dollars for carbon capture and storage; solar power; nuclear waste recycling; green buildings; and energy from fusion, an Alexander aide said. It excludes promotion of offshore oil and gas production, which is in the blueprint supported by all 40 Senate Republicans, the aide said.

Alexander and Webb are speaking about their bill this morning at the American Nuclear Society's winter conference. The co-sponsorship of Webb -- a coal-state Democrat -- might underscore how tough a sell he could be for Democratic leaders trying to get 60 votes for a bill to cap and trade carbon emissions. Alexander has also criticized that plan.

The Environment and Public Works Committee -- whose work Reid said will be the focal point of a Senate strategy on cap-and-trade -- is the only one to report out a cap-and-trade bill.

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee has approved energy legislation and will hold a hearing on climate change Tuesday. The hearing will examine international issues regarding climate change. Witnesses include representatives from the Council on Foreign Relations, U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

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