Washington --

Democratic Sens. Barbara Boxer of California and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island said Thursday that they would lead a new Senate task force to knock down a "barricade of special interest lies" on climate change.

A prime goal of the group will be enlisting the support of outside interests, from corporations such as Coca-Cola to the Garden Club of America.

"We believe climate change is a catastrophe that's unfolding before our eyes, and we want Congress to take off the blindfolds," Boxer said in a briefing in her Capitol Hill office. "We know what happens when you throw the environment under the bus. There's a place where it's happening, and it's called China."

The task force of more than a dozen senators, none of whom are Republicans, has the blessing of Majority Leader Harry Reid and the White House. The group will work with newly installed presidential counselor John Podesta, a Washington insider who has been active on climate change as founder of the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank.

Its aim is to undermine those in Washington who deny that humans are causing climate change, mainly Republicans, but also Democrats representing states with large fossil fuel industries.

"There is a vast and clear truth out there, which is what carbon pollution is doing to our atmosphere and oceans, and there is a vast and broad array of armies that are willing to fight for that truth," Whitehouse said. "There is a barricade of special-interest lies around Washington and around the Congress."

The task force's aim, he said, will be "to organize those armies and bring that truth to the barricade and beat through the lies."

If that happens, he said, "all sorts of legislation becomes possible."

As chairwoman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, Boxer was the point person for President Obama's failed first-term attempt to push climate change legislation through the Senate. She acknowledged Thursday that Democrats still lack the votes to attach a price to emissions of carbon, one of the main greenhouse gases - either through a tax or a cap-and-trade mechanism like California's.

"We all know you have to put a price on carbon because there is a cost," Boxer said. "It's such a huge cost you can barely put it into words or numbers. It's the survival of Earth."

Nonetheless, she said, "we are realists. We don't have the votes for a lot of things we think are critical, but we're going to get there, and that's the purpose of the wake-up call. We are going on offense."

Boxer said harnessing private-sector support will be a "big part" of the effort. Soda makers Coke and Pepsi are worried about maintaining water supplies, and automakers Ford and General Motors "are very bought in" to acting against climate change, Whitehouse said.

"You've got huge numbers of big nameplate American companies like Apple and Nike" that are interested in the issue, Whitehouse said. "It's almost more than I can describe. It's out there, and it's never been organized."

He also named as potential allies the military's Joint Chiefs of Staff - who he said "understand this is a vital national security issue" - and the Garden Club of America, which he called "a very powerful social force, particularly in the South."

"Public institutional support is there and it is widespread, and we're trying to create catalytic moments to harness that," Whitehouse said.

The full agenda and members of the task force will be announced formally at a Capitol Hill news conference Tuesday.