Durbin: Dems share climate-free lunch

Salvaging a global warming bill apparently isn't the first item on the Democratic agenda.

Senate Democrats did not discuss climate and energy legislation when they huddled Wednesday to map out plans in the wake of Republican Senator-elect Scott Brown’s stunning victory in Massachusetts, Majority Whip Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) said.

“It didn’t come up during the course of the lunch,” Durbin said after the weekly caucus meeting in the Capitol. “[Majority Leader] Harry Reid will have to schedule it. I suggest you ask him.”

Durbin, asked about the mood among moderate Democrats following Brown’s win, replied, “I haven’t counted the votes.”

“I have never been asked to. Too soon,” he said.

Reid hopes to bring up a climate and energy bill in the spring. But Brown’s win is raising questions about whether Democrats will shelve efforts to impose greenhouse gas emissions limits, and perhaps take up a package of only energy provisions instead.

For now, Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) say they’re moving ahead with efforts to merge emissions limits with increased domestic energy production.