WASHINGTON -- A group of coal state senators including Pennsylvania's Bob Casey Jr. and Arlen Specter have negotiated protections for the coal industry into a draft of climate change legislation.

But both Mr. Specter and Mr. Casey are withholding full support of the chairman's mark, released Friday by Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., because of concerns about how Pennsylvania would be affected by a transition away from fossil fuels.

The bill would give coal plants advance payments to take measures to reduce emissions, provided that the projects would cut emissions by at least 50 percent. It would mandate that coal plants cut emissions by using carbon capture and storage technology by 2020, but only if the technology is available on a large scale at that point.

The provisions were negotiated in meetings over several months among the staffs of several senators from coal states, in a group chaired by Tom Carper, D-Del. Sens. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., Max Baucus, D-Mont., Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Mark Warner, D-Va., participated as well.

The interests of coal were balanced against the wishes of some of the more liberal members of the Environment and Public Works Committee, which will hold hearings on the bill starting tomorrow. The White House, environmental groups such as the Sierra Club and coal industry players have been kept abreast of the negotiations.

Heavy industry has opposed the bill for its aggressive greenhouse gas reduction targets: a 20 percent reduction by 2020 and an 83 percent reduction by 2050. Those targets go further than the ones in the Waxman-Markey climate bill that narrowly passed in the House of Representatives in June. Both bills create a cap-and-trade market where big emitters can trade pollution credits.

A likely result of the bill's passage would be a shedding of jobs in the coal industry with an increase in so-called "green-collar jobs" in renewable energy fields. Protecting those who lose their jobs and retraining them for green jobs is also on the minds of Pennsylvania's senators, both Democrats.

"The coal issues we're still working through," Mr. Casey said.

"We still have a climate worker issue that we're going to be pushing hard as part of a bill, trying to push hard on wages and doing our best to make people whole who are adversely affected by a climate bill, both individuals and communities. . . . I think that's essential and I don't think we can pass a bill without it."

Cecil-based coal producer Consol Energy is against the legislation, as long as it keeps the emissions reductions targets, which spokesman Tom Hoffman last week said are unrealistic. The American Petroleum Institute and the ranking Republican on Environment and Public Works, Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma, issued statements denouncing the chairman's mark within minutes of its release on the grounds that it would raise costs for America's energy consumers.

Still, Mr. Specter, who sits on Environment and Public Works, said he's confident that business and environmental groups can find middle ground on the bill.

"I think we can deal with environmental concerns and global warming and still maintain a vibrant coal region," Mr. Specter said last week.

"There's going to be a lot more negotiation. We haven't had the hearings yet. We've got a lot of work to do."

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