Boxer climate change bill depends on state, not party interests

Next week, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee begins hearings on a climate change bill that's co-authored by Barbara Boxer of California. The battle lines over the bill may be drawn along state, and not party, interests.

Americans in different parts of the country rely on different energy sources to heat and cool their homes. Robert Simon, staff director of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, says that means a politician's views on climate change are formed by geography more than by politics.

"I'm acutely aware of the fact that there is really no coal-fired generation of consequence in California. There's quite a bit in the southeast United States. So Arnold Schwarzenegger, who's a card-carrying Republican, has views that are similar to other Californians on these issues, whereas you could find Democrats in the southeast who are more like Republicans in the southeast in terms of their concerns and apprehensions and questions that they ask about these sorts of things."

Simon says it's unlikely the Senate will pass a climate change bill by early December. That's when leaders from more than 190 countries will meet in Copenhagen to discuss an international climate treaty.