Barbara Boxer: In the Driver's Seat on Environmental Laws

TOP ENVIRONMENT PLAYER

California Sen. Barbara Boxer is one of the environmental movement's biggest legislative supporters. She's opposed drilling offshore and in ANWR and backed cleaner drinking water standards and corporate funding of toxic cleanups. Her perch atop the Committee on Environment and Public Works puts her in the driver's seat for a variety of green agenda items, some of which have already begun. For instance, the economic stimulus bill signed by President Obama included a measure to increase the efficiency of thousands of government buildings.

Winning support from a few key members across the aisle will be vital, a challenge made greater by the fact that some in the GOP question the science of global warming. But getting around that can sometimes be as simple as punting on questions of causation. Last year, Oklahoma Republican Sen. James Inhofe, a global warming skeptic, cosponsored a bill with Boxer tightening efficiency standards for federal buildings. Gaining his backing was as easy as ensuring that the bill's text didn't include the words carbon or global warming. Similar compromises might be in the offing when issues like the transportation bill come before Boxer's committee.

But the approaching legislative calendar isn't filled with such obvious middle ground, and her success may hinge on selling the idea that reducing dependence on foreign oil is as much an economic and national security issue as an environmental one. Watch for Boxer to support legislation that extends California-style tailpipe emissions cuts and the regulation of other greenhouse gases under language in the Clean Air Act. Increasing the use of renewable fuels and devising a cap-and-trade system for CO2 are also legislative priorities.

READ ABOUT THE NEXT OF THE TOP EIGHT WASHINGTON PLAYERS ON ENERGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT.