Senate decides to advance to debate on climate legislation 4

The Senate just held a cloture vote on whether to proceed with debate on the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act. It needed 60 votes to proceed. And the Senate says ...

Agreed to move forward, 74-14!

Climate change will now be open for debate on the Senate floor.

UPDATE: Now they're debating about when to start debate, and how much time to allot for debate. Republicans want 30 hours before amendments can even be introduced. And, of course, as John Kerry (D-Mass.) just pointed out, each amendment could have infinite debate after that.

In the meantime, here's the list of senators who voted against cloture:

Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.)
Jim Bunning (R-Ky.)
Richard Shelby (R-Ala.)
Larry Craig (R-Idaho)
Jim DeMint (R-S.C.)
Orrin Hatch (R-Utah)
Michael Enzi (R-Wy.)
John Barrasso (R-Wy.)
Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.)
Tom Coburn (R-Okla.)
Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.)
Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)
Wayne Allard (R-Colo.)
James Inhofe (R-Okla.)

UPDATE II: To clarify, this vote isn't actually the motion to proceed -- it's merely a cloture vote on the motion to proceed. Republicans have asked for 30 hours of discussion on the motion to proceed, before any amendments can even be introduced. So yes, they could well be talking about this for 30 more hours before we even get to a debate that's legislatively productive. The Senate will reconvene at 10 a.m. tomorrow morning.

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