More green groups join effort to change Senate rules

More green groups are putting their weight behind an effort to change the Senate's filibuster rules.

Friends of the Earth, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the League of Conservation Voters, Clean Water Action and Greenpeace signed onto a Monday letter to Democratic leaders calling for changes to the upper chamber's rules, joining the Sierra Club, unions and social justice groups as members of the "Fix the Senate Now" campaign.

Green groups hope changes to Senate rules could make it easier to push clean energy and climate change-related bills through the chamber.

“Whereas Senators once resorted to filibustering only in rare and exceptional instances of intense opposition, rampant obstruction has now transformed standard operating procedure. Today, majority rule in the Senate is the exception, not the rule,” said the letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).

Among the group's recommendations are ending the ability to filibuster motions to proceed, requiring senators who want to block bills and nominations to take the floor and allowing 41 senators to vote to continue debate.

“Requiring those wishing to slow down or halt legislation through the Senate rules to do so publicly on the Senate floor would raise the costs of obstruction so that the filibuster is reserved for instances in which a dedicated minority is intensely opposed to legislation,” the letter said.

— This story was updated at 1:37 p.m.