Boxer: global warming bill possible soon

The chairman of the U.S. Senate's environment committee said this week that it's possible Congress will pass a bill aimed at slowing global warming before international talks on a deal to limit climate change in Copenhagen in December.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, the California Democrat who is co-sponsoring the bill, said she is pushing for approval of the legislation with specific targets to limit greenhouse gases, adding that the Obama administration "is very strong on this."

She said congressional approval of the bill is possible before nations meet in Copenhagen, Denmark, in early December to try to agree on a new global climate treaty. But she said if the bill isn't approved by then it doesn't mean the U.S. isn't making progress in tackling global warming.

Boxer and Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, are co-sponsoring the 800-page Senate bill which calls for a ceiling on greenhouse gas emissions beginning in three years, to be tightened annually so that emissions would be 20 percent lower in 2020 than they were in 2005. It would require emissions to be 83 percent lower by 2050.