Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) explained to the Washington Post’s Ezra Klein why he is no longer supporting the climate change bill that he helped to write. The long and the short of it is that Graham feared he was being set up.

The legislation was thought to include a “linked fee” on gasoline tied to carbon prices in a cap-and-trade market. Graham said he began to get spooked after an anonymous White House official told Fox News that Graham in effect was supporting a gas tax, a third rail in American politics. Graham and his climate co-horts, Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.), have since said their climate legislation does not include a linked fee.

“[It's] not a gas tax. I need Harry Reid to say I agree with you. I support that,"Graham told the Post. "I won't introduce a bill and have the majority leader, who I have less than a strong bond with, say, 'I can't support that gas tax.'"

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Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) is calling on the Obama administration to halt plans for offshore drilling in the wake of a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Nelson is introducing legislation to prevent the expansion of drilling that Obama announced last month.

The Florida Democrat announced his plans in a letter to President Obama today.

"I am filing legislation that would for the time being prohibit the Interior Department from acting on your administration's plans to expand offshore drilling, including seismic testing and other exploratory operations," Nelson wrote.

Obama has said he will use "every single available resource" to contain the spill.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) declined to endorse Nelson's approach when asked about it at a press conference today.

A wide swath of environmental groups is urging President Barack Obama to keep the pressure on Congress to pass a climate bill.

A letter Thursday to the president from over 50 groups urges Obama to "continue to demonstrate your leadership in support of strong clean energy and climate change legislation this year."

The letter notes that Obama yesterday said he wanted Congress to address the issue in 2010. The groups want Obama's support to continue. "Now, more than ever, we need your help to make that vision a reality," the groups write.

The giant oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is threatening to do significant environmental damage to coastal ecosystems. Its political impact could be just as severe, experts say.

“The longer this goes on and the more areas it affects, and it appears to be worsening, the more damage, physically and politically,” said Guy Caruso, a senior advisor on energy and national security issues at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “The political damage may end up being even more far reaching.”

Caruso, a former top Energy Department official in the Bush administration, equated the spill to the oil slick that covered beaches in Santa Barbara, Calif., in 1969. 

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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Thursday that a massive oil spill threatening the Louisiana coast must play a role in considering President Barack Obama's offshore drilling plan.

Pelosi refused to endorse a ban on new exploration and drilling proposed by Florida Sen. Bill Nelson (D) Thursday in the wake of the spill, but she said that the disaster -- which officials believe killed 11 people -- needs to be taken into account when weighing Obama's plan to expand offshore oil and gas leasing.

"I would extend our concerns to those who lost their lives in the Gulf," she told reporters at her weekly press briefing. "We're going to take a look at the nature of the coastline and all of that has to be taken into consideration as we review the plan that the president put forth."

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Obama said he had directed his administration to use all available resources to help stop the Gulf Coast oil leak.

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Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio) is still insisting a "comprehensive" EPA analysis of climate legislation is completed before he votes on the bill.

Last year, Voinovich and other Republicans on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee boycotted a panel vote on climate legislation introduced by Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) because they did not have an EPA cost analysis of the bill. Committee Democrats had argued that the bill was similiar enough to House-passed climate legislatoin that a separate EPA analysis was not necessary.

On news that the climate bill Kerry has crafted with Sens. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) was sent to EPA for review, Voinovich reiterated in letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) that any analysis should incorporate changes to the bill from its introduction to the time when it gets voted on by the Senate.

The requirement could eventually delay a floor vote if the climate bill gets to that point, an big question now that Graham has pulled his support. EPA analyses can take weeks to complete.

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The Gulf of Mexico oil rig accident and spill have prompted the federal Minerals Management Service (MMS) to postpone an awards ceremony scheduled for May 3 that honors oil company offshore safety achievements.

The semi-submersible drilling rig that exploded early last week was owned by Transocean Ltd and was under lease to BP. BP is a finalist for one of the awards, according to the MMS website.

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The spill has implications for climate change legislation and plans to expand offshore drilling.

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