Republican protest puts energy bill in jeopardy

By The New York Times

April 24, 2010, 9:17PM

John M. Broder

Washington -- In a move that may derail a comprehensive climate change and energy bill in the Senate, one of the measure's central architects, Sen. Lindsey Graham, has issued an angry protest over what he says are Democratic plans to give priority to a debate over immigration policy.

Graham, Republican of South Carolina, said in a sharply worded letter on Saturday that he would no longer participate in negotiations on the energy bill, throwing its already cloudy prospects deeper into doubt. He had been working for months with Sens. John Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, and Joseph Lieberman, Independent of Connecticut, on the legislation, which they were scheduled to announce with considerable fanfare on Monday morning. That announcement has been indefinitely postponed.

In his letter to his two colleagues, Graham said that he was troubled by reports that Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada and the White House were planning to take up an immigration measure before the energy bill. Graham has worked with Democrats in the past on immigration matters and was expected to be an important bridge to Republicans on that issue, as well as on energy.

Graham said that any Senate debate on the highly charged subject of illegal immigration would make it impossible to deal with the difficult issues involved in national energy and global warming policy.

He said in his letter that energy must come first and that Democrats appeared to be rushing to take up immigration because of rising anti-immigrant sentiment, including a harsh new measure signed into law in Arizona on Friday.

"Moving forward on immigration -- in this hurried, panicked manner -- is nothing more than a cynical political ploy," Graham said. "I know from my own personal experience the tremendous amounts of time, energy and effort that must be devoted to this issue to make even limited progress."

Hours after Graham released his letter, Kerry said in a prepared statement that Graham's actions had scuttled plans for an elaborate announcement of the proposal, whose passage is a major priority for the Obama administration.

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