POLITICO Pro Republicans outfox Democrats on climate votes The GOP accepts the notion of climate change - but not the way Democrats wanted them to.

Senate Republicans head-faked Democrats on climate change Wednesday, agreeing in a floor vote that the planet’s climate was changing, but blocking language that would have blamed human activity.

In a complicated maneuver that was the first politically perilous test for Senate Republicans, the new majority party split up the votes that Democrats had hoped would force the GOP into an awkward roll call on whether they believed in the science behind climate change — just hours after President Barack Obama slammed Republicans in his State of the Union address for dodging the issue.


But Republicans made an eleventh-hour change in strategy on two Democratic attempts to divide them — with Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe, their most vocal denier of humans’ effect on the climate, joining a leading liberal in a symbolic vote on whether global warming is “real and not a hoax.”

“There is archeological evidence of that, there’s Biblical evidence of” the climate changing, Inhofe, the chairman of the Environment and Public Works panel, said on the floor before signing onto a proposal from Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) that stopped short of linking climate change to human activities, such as burning of fuels like coal and oil.

The climate science squabble broke out during debate over amendments to the bill to approve the Keystone XL pipeline that is all but certain to draw a presidential veto once it passes the Senate, which could happen as soon as next week. The legislation yanks Obama’s authority over the $8 billion Alberta-to-Texas heavy oil pipeline, but remains about four votes short of the margin needed to override a presidential veto.

Despite its path to rejection by the White House, the Keystone bill is proving a test of McConnell’s willingness to allow politically tough amendment votes as he seeks to draw a contrast to the firmer grip that now-Minority Leader Harry Reid kept on the chamber during his time in power.

Democrats have repeatedly needled the Kentucky Republican over his promise to hold an “open” debate on the pipeline bill, accusing McConnell of breaking his vow by not allowing open-ended amendments from any senator.

The Senate debate comes two months after the latest report from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that described humans’ impact on the climate as “clear and growing,” and urged nations around the world to work on both adapting to the warming world and reining in greenhouse gas growth.

Though all but one Republican agreed that the planet’s climate was changing — Mississippi’s Roger Wicker was the lone naysayer — only a handful of Republicans joined Democrats in tying the rising global temperature to human activities.

But the GOP engaged in a series of bait-and-switches through the day to parse the voting. The first Republican answer to Democrats’ proposal that “human activity significantly contributes to climate change” omitted mentioning the phrase “climate change,” and instead called for senators to oppose any efforts that raise energy costs or “destroy jobs.”

Republicans later replaced that amendment from Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) with language that said changing global temperatures was the result of human activity. That was almost identical to Democrats’ measure — except for the removal of the word “significantly” next to “human activity.” That measure fell a single vote short of the 60-vote threshold it needed.

The climate debate also saw a split among the GOP’s 2016 presidential hopefuls over whether humans play a role in global warming. Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.) was one of the 15 Republicans to support Hoeven’s tweaked amendment, while Sens. Ted Cruz (Texas) and Marco Rubio (Fla.) voted no.

A following vote on the strongest climate change measure, an amendment sponsored by Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), attracted 50 votes, 10 short of what it needed to pass.

Laura Sheehan, spokeswoman for the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, groused in a statement that Schatz’s push shows he “would rather exacerbate ideological divisions than come together and make meaningful progress on a measure that will help the very base his party claims to support.”

But climate change consultant David DiMartino said “the clear arc of public opinion and the cavalcade of scientific, political and religious leaders supporting action on climate change forced Senate Republicans to acknowledge climate change isn’t a ‘hoax.’”

One Senate GOP aide questioned why Democrats were “trying to embarrass Republicans on climate” rather than offering substantive proposals, such as Whitehouse’s proposed carbon tax or a version of their party’s failed cap-and-trade emissions legislation.

“Democrats are stuck in messaging mode,” the aide said.

Still, even Schatz’s language and the inclusion of phrasing that humans were “significantly” responsible for climate change drew some Republican votes, despite the plea from Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski that the inclusion of that word merited voting the measure down. Those five Republicans were Sens. Kelly Ayotte (N.H.), Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), Susan Collins (Maine), Lindsey Graham (S.C.) and Mark Kirk (Ill.).

“It’s okay with me if they do messaging if it makes them feel better,” Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who voted for the GOP proposal that humans affect the climate, said in an interview before the votes. As for global warming, he added: “I don’t think anybody disputes that it’s real. The question is what you do about it.”

Besides McCain and Paul, Senate Republicans who voted for Hoeven’s proposal were Murkowski, Jeff Flake (Ariz.), Graham, Alexander, Collins, Pat Toomey (Pa.), Mike Rounds (S.D.), Rob Portman (Ohio), Dean Heller (Nev.), Orrin Hatch (Utah), Ayotte, Kirk, and Bob Corker (Tenn.).

Despite the frenetic maneuvering over Hoeven’s changed amendment — which led Democrats to coin “Hoevenize” as a new word for voting against one’s own proposal — Schatz was sanguine about what he called “a good day and a surprisingly productive day on the climate debate.”

“The way the day transpired was productive, but it was also fascinating,” Schatz said after his climate proposal fell short despite drawing majority support. “Republicans appeared serene about conducting these votes until about noon, and then there was a lot of activity where they were clearly trying to create some movement and create some room for their members.”

Greens responded to the stunning turn by challenging Republicans to follow up on their members’ new-found climate conversion with a substantive plan to act on cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

“But what’s their plan to do something about it?” the Natural Resources Defense Council’s associate government affairs director, Franz Matzner, said in a statement. “Republican leaders still are trying to block any and all solutions, and putting our children’s health at risk.”

The environment committee’s top Democrat, Sen. Barbara Boxer (Calif.), said she had asked Hoeven about opposing his own amendment. ”He said, ‘Because I was threatened that this [Keystone] bill would fail if this was on it.’ So that’s what happened,” she told reporters.

Hoeven’s office did not immediately return a request for comment about opposing his own proposal. The only Democrat to vote no, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), could see a vote on his own more left-leaning symbolic climate amendment as soon as tomorrow.

The climate tussle “is unfolding exactly the way a lot of us wanted because we wanted to have finally a debate and see where the chips fall,” Boxer added. “And where the chips fall is we’re making progress.”

Darren Goode contributed to this report.