Baucus not yet committing to support Rockefeller

Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) is not committing just yet to backing a plan 
by Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) to delay EPA climate regulations,
 despite opposing the agency’s right to regulate greenhouse-gas 
emissions. 



“He is looking at Senator Rockefeller’s proposal and other options
 carefully,” a Baucus spokeswoman said in an e-mail.

Baucus has expressed discontentment with the EPA’s right to regulate heat-trapping emissions 
under the Clean Air Act before. He filed several amendments seeking to waive EPA's authority to regulate climate change in last year’s Senate 
Environment and Public Works debate on cap-and-trade legislation. 
Baucus cited the lack of agreement on that and other issues in casting the lone Democratic vote, in committee, against the measure. The bill did not advance any further in the Senate this Congress.

Rockefeller has predicted he can get 60 votes for his two-year delay and has 
lined up six Democratic co-sponsors so far — Kent Conrad and Byron
 Dorgan of North Dakota, Tim Johnson (S.D.), Claire McCaskill
 (Miss.), Ben Nelson (Neb.) and Jim Webb (Va.).



Rockefeller wants a Senate vote on that plan during the upcoming
 lame-duck session despite an insurmountable White House veto threat 
and no plan by the House to act on it.