Josh Voorhees, E&E reporter, Environment and Energy Daily, 10/23/2010

Senators crafting the next multi-year highway bill will examine ways the legislation can cut greenhouse gas emissions and reduce petroleum consumption.

Wednesday's Environment and Public Works Committee hearing will be the fourth in as many weeks for the panel, which has recently begun work on drafting the successor to the current highway law that expires at the end of the year.

EPW Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and her fellow Democrats have pledged to use the bill to recast the nation's transportation strategy to curb emissions and fuel use. Transportation accounts for roughly 28 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, and the sector has been one of the fastest-growing in the past two decades -- representing nearly half of the nation's total increase in emissions since 1990.

Boxer and ranking member James Inhofe (R-Okla.) have so far mostly seen eye to eye on transportation, working together to extend the last law 15 months past when it was set to expire. But the two have a more contentious history when it comes to environmental and energy issues.

Last November, Boxer reported out sweeping climate and energy legislation from the EPW panel without a single Republican voting on it, a move that she and Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) deemed necessary after Inhofe led a boycott of the markup.