Industry and environmental leaders alike say bipartisan support for the climate and energy bill is essential for its passage.

Yet following Sen. Lindsey Graham's withdrawal from the negotiations last month, no other Republican has signed on to the bill and none have yet signaled an openness to doing so. That has not gone unnoticed by moderate lawmakers whose support will be essential in moving the bill, unveiled Wednesday by Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Joe Lieberman, I/D-Conn.

"Senator Graham's absence makes the bill... a steeper climb," Finance Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., said Wednesday. "A factor, frankly, is the degree at which the proposal has legs, and that is yet to be determined," said Baucus, deflecting questions as to when or whether he'd bring the bill in front of his panel.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, the top Republican on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, echoed Baucus' concern. "The fact that Senator Graham is not on it does not bode well for gaining that bipartisan support," Murkowski told NationalJournal.com Wednesday evening.

Talking to reporters after the official unveiling, Edison Electric Institute President Tom Kuhn underscored the importance of having senators from both parties sign on. "I think it is important to get a bill that does have bipartisan support," Kuhn said. "There's going to have to be a lot of discussions with various senators."

Karpinski and Lashof cited a handful of Republican senators as potential "yes" votes -- including Murkowski, Maine's Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, John McCain of Arizona, Richard Lugar of Indiana, George Voinovich of Ohio, Judd Gregg of New Hampshire and George LeMieux of Florida.

These senators have either supported climate legislation before or have expressed an openness to doing so now, Karpinski and Lashof both say. "There are a number of Republicans who have a record of supporting legislation to limit carbon pollution," Lashof said. "And we would hope they would support this."

That is news to McCain. "Really? They're saying that?" the senator replied when told that environmental groups see him as a potential "yes" vote. He said his support is conditional upon including a robust nuclear option, something he said the bill is lacking. "There's no storage and there's no recycling," McCain said Wednesday. "You have to have recycling and storage. It's a national security issue for me. And obviously they will not do that," McCain added, referring to the Obama administration's decision to shut down the nuclear waste repository site at Yucca Mountain.

Murkowski's support for the bill would require "good policy that balances our economic strength and the environment," the senator said Wednesday. When asked if Kerry and Lieberman's bill had the potential to get to that point, the senator replied: "I don't know." She said had not seen or been briefed on the bill enough to take a preliminary position on it but would be looking it over with her energy staff soon.

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