WASHINGTON -- Sen. Saxby Chambliss isn't exactly known as a tree-hugger.
Yet this past week, he and fellow Republican Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina met with me to discuss clean energy legislation they just introduced.
Their bill, the senators say, would help wean the country off oil and coal and move toward a cleaner world based on electric vehicles, natural gas and nuclear power. It also promotes nuclear waste reprocessing, a promising yet untested idea.
"It will get us across that bridge ... [from] where we are today, a petroleum-based economy," Chambliss said.
So what prompted the two senators not known for their environmental records to work together to introduce a clean energy bill out of the blue?
"Divine intervention, I guess," Chambliss joked.
There may be a bit more to it than that.
The Chambliss-Burr legislation is a Republican counter to Democrats' proposed climate and energy legislation that would limit and tax carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants operated by energy companies such as Atlanta-based Southern Co. and Charlotte-based Duke Energy.
You'll never guess who the biggest campaign contributors are to Chambliss and Burr.
From 2005 to 2010, Southern was the No. 2 contributor to Chambliss, giving more than $100,850 to his campaigns. No. 1 was the conservative Club for Growth and No. 3 was IntercontinentalExchange Inc., which operates trading platforms for energy and other commodities.
Natural gas company Scana Corp., which serves Georgia and the Carolinas, was the No. 2 contributor to Burr's campaigns, while Duke Energy was No. 4.
Chambliss and Burr say their power company constituents are indeed supportive of the legislation, because they know they're going to have to change one way or another to survive.
Environmental and taxpayer groups are less supportive of the bill, which relies on major tax incentives for energy companies and others to drive the move to cleaner energy sources.
"With all the talk about watching the deficit, it's interesting that their solution to foreign oil dependence is to throw federal money at the problem," said Steve Valk of the Citizens Climate Lobby in Atlanta, which supports a program that would put a fee on carbon emissions and return proceeds to the public.
Autumn Hanna, senior program director of the nonpartisan Taxpayers for Common Sense, said her group doesn't support the Chambliss-Burr legislation.
"That bill is just loaded with [taxpayer-funded] subsidies," she said.
HAPPY (POLITICAL) FOURTH
There's nothing more American than the Fourth of July, and Georgia's members of Congress -- like all politicians -- don't waste the opportunity to show their stripes (and stars).
New Rep. Tom Graves, a Republican from Ranger, used the occasion to introduce a weekly column for constituents. Graves recognizes Lance Cpl. William Richards of Trenton, Ga., killed in Afghanistan on June 26, and also welcomes home the Georgia Army National Guard's "Charlie Company." Graves also goes on to point out that July Fourth is a time to remember that "government was designed to defend the people, not manage them."
Athens Republican Rep. Paul Broun marked July Fourth by recollecting the American Revolution and comparing it to his idea of the climate in America today.
"Similar to 1776, there are today millions of Americans who feel ruled by a federal government that should instead be serving them," Broun wrote on his Web site.
And then there are the parades.
Republican Sen. Johnny Isakson was scheduled in one in Marietta. Democratic Rep. John Barrow was scheduled in one in Wrightsville, before kicking off a Veterans Town Hall Tour.
CONGRESS IS GONE, SO IS WASHINGTON WATCH
Congress is gone all next week for an extended July Fourth holiday; so is Washington Watch.
Happy Fourth.
Follow me live at www.twitter.com/ajconwashington.
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