GOP aims to block bill on global warming

Republican senators will seek to block Democrats from moving forward with climate-change legislation during a meeting of Sen. Barbara Boxer's committee planned for this week, a Republican aide said.

The aide said all seven Republicans on the panel agreed late last week to boycott meetings of Boxer's Environment and Public Works Committee after she said the panel would meet to begin amending the legislation this week. The committee, controlled by Democrats 12-7, needs at least two Republicans present for a quorum to amend legislation, the aide said.

The bill, sponsored by Boxer, D-Calif., and Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., aims to shift the U.S. to a more clean-energy economy by limiting global-warming pollution from power plants, factories and other large sources of greenhouse-gas emissions. The measure would create a market for companies to buy and sell a limited number of pollution credits.

Republicans said during three days of hearings on the plan this week that further action should be delayed until a more complete economic analysis is conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency.