Climate change bill may require trade-offs

WASHINGTON, Oct. 7 (UPI) -- Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-S.C., said a climate control bill in the United States would need to include nuclear power and offshore drilling trade-offs.

"More than a handful" of Republicans in the Senate would vote for a climate change bill if it provided support for nuclear power and offshore drilling "in a responsible manner," Graham said, the Houston Chronicle reported Wednesday.

The leading climate change measure, a bill sponsored by Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., pushes a system of increasingly tighter emissions restrictions combined with gradually decreasing pool of permits to release greenhouse gas pollutants.

But "to get a bipartisan bill on climate change, you're going to have to make it attractive for Republicans to vote for a cap-and-trade system," said Graham, who has been negotiating with other senators on the issue.

"There's a way to grow Republican support but it is a give-and-take," Graham said.

That give and take might include allowing off-shore drilling in the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico and proving loans to expand nuclear power capacity, the newspaper said.