Senate, Greenhouse Gas Emissions | featured news

A key U.S. Senate environment committee approved a Democratic climate change bill on Thursday that would require industry to cut emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases 20 percent by 2020 from 2005 levels.

Four of President Barack Obama's top environmental and energy officials are urging the Senate to pass legislation to reduce emissions of the gases linked to global warming.

The heads of the Energy Department, Agriculture Department, Interior Department and Environmental Protection Agency told a Senate panel Tuesday they should pass a bill similar to one the House narrowly cleared late last month. That legislation would impose the first limits on greenhouse gases, reducing them by 80 percent by mid-century.