Query: A major part of the climate change bill sponsored by Sens. John Kerry and Joe Lieberman "was essentially written by BP."

Relevant passages:
Joe Lieberman <=SEP=> Joseph Isadore Lieberman ( born February 24 , 1942 ) is an American politician , having served as a United States Senator from Connecticut from 1989 to 2013 . A former member of the Democratic Party , he was the party 's nominee for Vice President in the 2000 election . Currently he is an Independent .   Born in Stamford , Connecticut , Lieberman is a graduate of Yale University and Yale Law School . He was elected as a `` Reform Democrat '' in 1970 to the Connecticut Senate , where he served three terms as Majority Leader . After an unsuccessful bid for the U.S. House of Representatives in 1980 , he served as state Attorney General from 1983 to 1989 . Lieberman defeated moderate Republican Lowell Weicker in 1988 to win election to the U.S. Senate , and was re-elected in 1994 and 2000 . Lieberman was the Democratic nominee for Vice President in the 2000 United States presidential election , running with presidential nominee Al Gore , and becoming the first Jewish candidate on a major American political party presidential ticket .   In the 2000 presidential election , Gore and Lieberman won the popular vote by a margin of more than 500,000 votes , but lost the deciding Electoral College to the Republican George W. Bush / Dick Cheney ticket 271 -- 266 . Lieberman also unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination in the 2004 presidential election .   During his re-election bid in 2006 , he lost the Democratic Party primary election , but won re-election in the general election as a third party candidate under the `` Connecticut for Lieberman '' party label . Lieberman himself was never a member of that party , but instead remained a registered Democrat while he ran .   Lieberman was officially listed in Senate records for the 110th and 111th Congresses as an `` Independent Democrat '' , and sat as part of the Senate Democratic Caucus . But after his speech at the 2008 Republican National Convention in which he endorsed John McCain for President , Lieberman no longer attended Democratic Caucus leadership strategy meetings or policy lunches . On November 5 , 2008 , Lieberman met with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to discuss his future role with the Democratic Party . Ultimately , the Senate Democratic Caucus voted to allow Lieberman to keep chairmanship of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs . Subsequently , Lieberman announced that he would continue to caucus with the Democrats . Before the 2016 election , he endorsed Hillary Clinton for President .   As Senator , he introduced and championed the Do n't Ask , Do n't Tell Repeal Act of 2010 and legislation that led to the creation of the Department of Homeland Security . During debate on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act , as the crucial 60th vote needed to pass the legislation , Lieberman 's opposition to the public option was critical for its removal from the resulting bill . Lieberman announced in January 2011 that he would retire from the Senate at the end of his term , and he did so in January 2013 .

John Kerry <=SEP=> John Forbes Kerry ( born December 11 , 1943 ) is an American politician who served as the 68th United States Secretary of State from 2013 to 2017 . A Democrat , he previously served Massachusetts in the United States Senate from 1985 to 2013 . He was the Democratic nominee in the 2004 presidential election , losing to Republican incumbent George W. Bush .   Kerry was born in Aurora , Colorado and attended boarding school in Massachusetts and New Hampshire . He graduated from Yale University in 1966 with a major in political science . Kerry enlisted in the Naval Reserve in 1966 , and between 1968 and 1969 , he served an abbreviated four-month tour of duty in South Vietnam as officer-in-charge ( OIC ) of a Swift Boat . For that service , he was awarded combat medals that include the Silver Star Medal , Bronze Star Medal , and three Purple Heart Medals . Securing an early return to the United States , Kerry joined the Vietnam Veterans Against the War organization in which he served as a nationally recognized spokesman and as an outspoken opponent of the Vietnam War . He appeared in the Fulbright Hearings before the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs where he deemed United States war policy in Vietnam to be the cause of war crimes .   After receiving a J.D. from Boston College Law School , Kerry worked as an Assistant District Attorney in Massachusetts . He served as Lieutenant Governor under Michael Dukakis from 1983 to 1985 and was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1984 and was sworn in the following January . On the Senate Foreign Relations Committee , he led a series of hearings from 1987 to 1989 which were a precursor to the Iran -- Contra affair . Kerry was re-elected to additional terms in 1990 , 1996 , 2002 , and 2008 . On October 11 , 2002 , Kerry voted to authorize the President `` to use force , if necessary , to disarm Saddam Hussein , '' but warned that the administration should exhaust its diplomatic avenues before launching war .107 th Congress-2nd Session 237th Roll Call Vote by members of the Senate , October 11 , 2002 . Retrieved 9 January 2017 .   In his 2004 presidential campaign , Kerry criticized George W. Bush for the Iraq War . He and his running mate , North Carolina Senator John Edwards , lost the election , finishing 35 electoral votes behind Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney . Kerry returned to the Senate , becoming Chairman of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship in 2007 and then of the Foreign Relations Committee in 2009 . In January 2013 , Kerry was nominated by President Barack Obama to succeed outgoing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and then confirmed by the U.S. Senate , assuming the office on February 1 , 2013 .

John McCain <=SEP=> John Sidney McCain III ( born August 29 , 1936 ) is an American politician who currently serves as the senior United States Senator from Arizona . He was the Republican nominee for the 2008 U.S. presidential election .   McCain followed his father and grandfather , both four-star admirals , into the United States Navy , graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1958 . He became a naval aviator , flying ground-attack aircraft from aircraft carriers . During the Vietnam War , he was almost killed in the 1967 USS Forrestal fire . In October 1967 , while on a bombing mission over Hanoi , he was shot down , seriously injured , and captured by the North Vietnamese . He was a prisoner of war until 1973 . McCain experienced episodes of torture , and refused an out-of-sequence early repatriation offer . His war wounds have left him with lifelong physical limitations .   He retired from the Navy as a captain in 1981 and moved to Arizona , where he entered politics . Elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1982 , McCain served two terms . He was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1986 , winning re-election easily five times , most recently in 2016 . While generally adhering to conservative principles , McCain at times has had a media reputation as a `` maverick '' for his willingness to disagree with his party on certain issues . After being investigated and largely exonerated in a political influence scandal of the 1980s as a member of the Keating Five , he made campaign finance reform one of his signature concerns , eventually gaining passage of the McCain -- Feingold Act in 2002 . He is also known for his work in the 1990s to restore diplomatic relations with Vietnam , and for his belief that the Iraq War should have been fought to a successful conclusion . McCain has chaired the Senate Commerce Committee , opposed spending that he considered to be pork barrel , and played a key role in alleviating a crisis over judicial nominations with the bi-partisan group known as the Gang of 14 .   McCain ran for the Republican nomination in 2000 but lost a heated primary season contest to George W. Bush of Texas . He secured the nomination in 2008 after coming back from early reversals , but was defeated by Democratic candidate Barack Obama in the general election , losing by a 365 -- 173 electoral college margin and by 53 -- 46 % in the popular vote . He subsequently adopted more orthodox conservative stances and attitudes and largely opposed actions of the Obama administration , especially in regard to foreign policy matters . By 2013 , however , he had become a key figure in the Senate for negotiating deals on certain issues in an otherwise partisan environment . In 2015 , McCain became chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee .

Al Gore <=SEP=> Albert Arnold Gore Jr. ( born March 31 , 1948 ) is an American politician and environmentalist who served as the 45th Vice President of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton . He was Clinton 's running mate in their successful campaign in 1992 , and was re-elected in 1996 . At the end of Clinton 's second term , Gore was picked as the Democratic nominee for the 2000 presidential election . After leaving office , Gore remained prominent as an author and environmental activist , whose work in climate change activism earned him ( jointly with the IPCC ) the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 .   Gore was an elected official for 24 years . He was a Congressman from Tennessee ( 1977 -- 85 ) and from 1985 to 1993 served as one of the state 's Senators . He served as Vice President during the Clinton administration from 1993 to 2001 . In the 2000 presidential election , in what was one of the closest presidential races in history , Gore won the popular vote but lost in the Electoral College to Republican George W. Bush . A controversial election dispute over a vote recount in Florida was settled by the U.S. Supreme Court , which ruled 5 -- 4 in favor of Bush .   Gore is the founder and current chair of the Alliance for Climate Protection , the co-founder and chair of Generation Investment Management and the now-defunct Current TV network , a member of the Board of Directors of Apple Inc. , and a senior adviser to Google . Gore is also a partner in the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers , heading its climate change solutions group . He has served as a visiting professor at Middle Tennessee State University , Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism , Fisk University , and the University of California , Los Angeles . He served on the Board of Directors of World Resources Institute .   Gore has received a number of awards including the Nobel Peace Prize ( joint award with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , 2007 ) , a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album ( 2009 ) for his book An Inconvenient Truth , a Primetime Emmy Award for Current TV ( 2007 ) , and a Webby Award ( 2005 ) . Gore was also the subject of the Academy Award-winning ( 2007 ) documentary An Inconvenient Truth in 2006 . In 2007 , he was named a runner-up for Time 2007 Person of the Year .

Lindsey Graham <=SEP=> Lindsey Olin Graham ( born July 9 , 1955 ) is an American politician and member of the Republican Party who has served as a United States Senator from South Carolina since 2003 .   A native of Central , South Carolina , Graham graduated from the University of South Carolina in 1977 . He received his Juris Doctor from the University of South Carolina School of Law in 1981 . He served in the United States Air Force from 1982 to 1988 and served as a Guardsman first in the South Carolina Air National Guard then in the Air Force Reserves , attaining the rank of colonel . He worked as a lawyer in private practice before he was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives in 1992 , serving one term from 1993 to 1995 . He then served in the United States House of Representatives , representing South Carolina 's 3rd congressional district from 1995 to 2003 . He was elected to four terms , receiving at least 60 % of the vote each time .   In 2002 , Graham ran for the U.S. Senate after eight-term Republican incumbent Strom Thurmond announced his retirement . Graham won the primary unopposed and defeated Democratic opponent Alex Sanders in the general election . Graham was re-elected to a second term in 2008 , defeating Bob Conley . He won a third term in 2014 , defeating Democrat Brad Hutto and Independent Thomas Ravenel .   Graham is known in the Senate for his advocacy of a strong national defense , his support of the military , and as an advocate of strong United States leadership in world affairs . He is also known for his willingness to be bipartisan and work with Democrats on issues like global warming , tax reform and immigration reform and his belief that judicial nominees should not be opposed solely on their philosophical positions . He is also a critic of the Tea Party movement , arguing for a more inclusive Republican Party .   On May 18 , 2015 , Graham informally announced his candidacy for President of the United States , followed by a formal announcement on June 21 , 2015 , in his hometown of Central , South Carolina . On December 21 , 2015 , he ended his campaign for the presidency . He later endorsed Jeb Bush for President . After Bush suspended his campaign on February 20 , Graham subsequently endorsed Ted Cruz . When it seemed certain that Donald Trump would become the Republican Presidential candidate in early May 2016 , Graham announced he would not vote for Trump .