WASHINGTON -- A bipartisan trio of senators trying to forge a compromise on climate change legislation huddled with Obama administration officials yesterday about their plan to combine caps on greenhouse gas emissions with expanded offshore drilling and incentives for nuclear power.

Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said they were working on a "dual track" to assemble a new proposal they hope would win Senate approval, even as Republicans stall a key committee's work on the issue of global warming.

"The stakes are so high for the people of our planet, for the people of our country, [and] for our children and grandchildren, that we will be held accountable by history unless we make every effort to find common ground," Mr. Lieberman told reporters.

Mr. Kerry and Mr. Graham said their approach would combine "aggressive reductions" in greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming with a plan to spur the construction of nuclear power plants and more "onshore and offshore oil and gas exploration."

"We're trying to find that sweet spot of a bill that will be good for the environment, good for business and make us energy independent," Mr. Graham said yesterday.

Mr. Kerry said the group was trying "to broaden the base of support" for a climate plan and "achieve the obviously all-important goal of getting 60 votes" that are needed to overcome a filibuster in the Senate.

Although Mr. Kerry said the group's push wouldn't interfere with work by six Senate committees on the issue, it was a tacit acknowledgment that the leading measure -- a bill he introduced with Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. -- is too controversial to pass.

That legislation has already stalled in Ms. Boxer's Environment and Public Works Committee, where Republicans members have boycotted two days of meetings in a bid to force a new federal analysis of the bill's potential price tag.

The Kerry-Boxer bill at issue would effectively put a price on the carbon dioxide released whenever fossil fuels are burned by creating a cap-and-trade system for polluters to buy and sell allowances to release the substances.

A cap-and-trade program is likely to be part of any compromise fashioned by Mr. Kerry, Mr. Graham and Mr. Lieberman, but they have signaled their support for a firm "price collar" that would set a minimum floor and maximum ceiling for the price of emission allowances. Business groups have said they crave certainty in carbon pricing and worry about spikes in the cost of pollution permits.

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