Senators add oil drilling, nuclear measures in revised climate bill to draw wider support

Dems revise climate bill to court GOP support

WASHINGTON — Senators supporting climate legislation have offered a revised proposal that would add incentives for building nuclear power plants and open the way for possible expanded oil and gas drilling off the nation’s coastlines.

The new framework for a Senate climate bill unveiled Thursday would ease back requirements for early reductions of greenhouse gases. It calls for cuts of 17 percent by 2020, instead of 20 percent. That’s similar to reductions Obama will call for at the Copenhagen climate talks.

But key to hopes of attracting Republican support are new measures to significantly increase government loan guarantees for building new reactors and a proposal to open offshore waters to oil and gas drilling if states want such development.