(Host) Senator Bernie Sanders is hailing the passage of a climate change bill by the Senate Environment Committee.

Sanders says it will be difficult to create bi-partisan support for the legislation because all the Republicans on the committee boycotted the vote.

VPR's Bob Kinzel reports.

(Kinzel) Sanders has been very involved with the climate change bill as a member of the Senate Environment Committee and as the chairman of the panel's subcommittee on green jobs.

Speaking on VPR's Vermont Edition, Sanders said the new bill reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent over the next 10 years, increases spending on renewable energy and energy efficiency programs, and creates a cap-and-trade system for pollution credits.

(Sanders) "At the end of the day, we are looking at a major energy transformation, which in fact is going to cut greenhouse gas emissions, which we have got to do, which is going to create millions of new, good-paying jobs in the United States of America and make us energy independent."

(Kinzel) And Sanders says one of the major goals of the bill is to sharply reduce this country's reliance on foreign oil.

(Sanders) "The opportunity is that right now this year we are spending about $350 billion - that's with a B - $350 billion this year importing oil from Saudi Arabia, from Iraq, Russia, Venezuela, other countries. Now just think for a moment the kinds of jobs and energy systems we can create in the United States of America if we move toward energy independence, if we move toward energy efficiency."

(Kinzel) A number of senators from regions of the country that rely on coal-generated electricity are concerned that the legislation will cause electric rates to skyrocket in their states.

Sanders says the bill attempts to address some of these concerns.

(Sanders) "I do understand that in coal states in the Midwest and elsewhere they worry about job loss and they worry about higher utility bills. In truth in this legislation we are putting substantial sums of money to deal with that reality. But at the end of the day, in my view, we have got to move away from coal. We have to got to move away from oil. We got to move away from fossil fuels in general. And we can do it."

(Kinzel) Sanders says he's disappointed that all of the Republicans on the Environment Committee boycotted the vote on the climate change bill.  The GOP senators wanted to postpone the vote until further studies are conducted.

Sanders argues that the science of climate change is well established and that additional studies aren't necessary before Congress acts on the legislation.

For VPR News, I'm Bob Kinzel in Montpelier