Updated at 4:55 p.m. with statement from Schumer's office.

Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., will meet later this week to talk about a possible strategy for moving a broad climate and energy plan, Senate aides said.

The sit-down between the two comes after Schumer today told MSNBC that Democrats are likely to bring an energy plan to the floor based on a bill approved last year by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Senate Democrats, Schumer said, will then allow Kerry a chance to try to amend that with a broader carbon pricing and energy production plan he devised with Sen. Joe Lieberman, I/D-Conn.

"We believe we're right on track," Kerry spokeswoman Whitney Smith said in an e-mail.

But while this strategy may make it easier for Democrats to pass some form of response to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill before the midterm elections, it may also make it more difficult for Kerry and Lieberman to get 60 votes for their plan. Potential swing votes in both parties will be off the hook for having to vote for the larger and more contentious package.

The meeting this week between the two Democrats was arranged today after Kerry called Schumer following the latter's comments on MSNBC. Schumer -- the third-ranking Senate Democrat -- told the network that Kerry "has a proposal that has pretty broad support" and will have a "chance to offer it in the form of an amendment -- and we'll see if it has the votes."

His remarks drew quick rebuke among environmental groups, who are considering a possible coordinated response. His office clarified his remarks this afternoon.

"To the senator's knowledge, no decisions have been made yet on the floor strategy for legislation addressing the nation's urgent energy challenges, nor is it his decision to make," Schumer spokesman Brian Fallon said in an e-mail.

Schumer, he said, "speculated on one procedural option, but make no mistake: He believes climate change legislation is vital to our nation's energy security and looks forward to voting for it."

The meeting between Kerry and Schumer will occur before Kerry and other key committee chairs sit down Thursday with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada to talk about a strategy, an aide said.

A spokesman for Reid declined to comment on Schumer's remarks, though Reid himself last month suggested a possible energy-only strategy as well. Reid told Univision May 9 that he can do a smaller plan "because I have a couple of Republicans who would help me on that."

"But the big bill that we need to do, they are not helping us on that, but I can do a smaller energy bill," he said.

Offering the broader climate plan as an amendment is an approach Senate GOP aides have long expected, and it is a tactic Reid has often used for big bills that stand little chance of passing.

The smaller energy bill has at its center a renewable electricity production mandate that would be a boost to his state's geothermal, solar and related industries. While it received some Republican backing on the energy panel, the withdrawal from the Kerry-Lieberman effort by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., means there are no Republicans who officially back that broader approach.

But Republican support for the smaller energy is not guaranteed, as it was based at least in part on expansion of offshore oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. If that language is removed or scaled back due to the political ramifications of the ongoing gulf spill, it could compromise GOP backing.

Reid last week instructed Democratic committee chairs to submit by July 4 ideas for addressing the spill that could be included in energy legislation this summer. The Kerry-Lieberman plan -- thanks largely to language Graham helped orchestrate -- goes further than last year's Senate energy bill in allowing for offshore drilling to be expanded along much of the East Coast.

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