News from Congress Now on this afternoon’s machinations by members of the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee:

Highlighting the difficult straddle facing proponents, a Senate subcommittee today approved landmark climate change legislation over the objections of both a coal-state Western Republican and a liberal East Coast Senator with close ties to environmentalists. The Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Private Sector and Consumer Solutions to Global Warming and Wildlife Protection this morning approved the America’s Climate Security Act (S. 2191) on a 4-3 recorded vote. The bill aims to reduce global warming by creating a mandatory cap-and-trade emissions trading scheme that would impact virtually every sector of the economy.