(CBS/AP) The Senate prepared to make a largely symbolic vote on global warming, capping a polarized two-day debate on a bill designed to reduce industrial carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.

The two chief sponsors of the legislation, Sens. John McCain, an Arizona Republican, and Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut Democrat, acknowledged that their bill likely would be defeated. They characterized it as the opening shot in what will be a lengthy effort to get Congress to address human-caused climate change.

"This president really is fiddling while the globe is warming," Lieberman, a Democratic presidential candidate, said of President Bush's emphasis on global climate change research rather than steps to reduce emissions. "Environmental protection and economic growth are not mutually exclusive, they are mutually enforcing."

The White House said it strongly opposed the bill because it would require "deep and immediate cuts in fossil fuel use" to meet an "arbitrary" goal, and drive up household energy bills and gas pump prices.

"These increases in energy prices would effectively operate as a tax on American consumers and would have a severe negative impact on job creation," the White House said in a statement.

Republican Sen. Kit Bond of Missouri told senators the bill would cripple the U.S. economy. "Now is not the time to place more burden on our families and our communities," he said.

McCain, who chairs the Senate Commerce Committee, forced the debate and vote to the Senate floor by promising he wouldn't block a major energy bill that has been stalled in Congress.

Many of the global warming bill's supporters, who aim to win, at minimum, between 20 and 40 votes in the 100-member Senate, pin their hopes on McCain.

"This is a big battle, but we'll win over time," McCain told The Associated Press Tuesday. "Because climate change is real. And we will overcome the influence of the special interests over time."

It will be the first such vote since the Senate voted 95-0 in 1997 to reject many of the principles behind an international climate treaty negotiated in Kyoto, Japan. The treaty was signed later that year by then-Vice President Al Gore but the Senate never ratified it.

One of Mr. Bush's first environmental decisions after taking office in 2001 was to withdraw from the treaty and reverse a campaign pledge to regulate industrial carbon dioxide emissions.

The White House said the treaty was flawed because it did not require sufficient reductions in carbon dioxide output from developing countries, like China and India, which aren't the biggest polluters now but will become emissions giants as they grow.

The treaty has not yet been implemented because not enough countries have ratified it. Last month, Russia cast grave doubt on the future of the protocol by saying it was studying the measure before signing it.

The McCain-Lieberman bill would impose a nationwide cap on industrial emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases that many scientists say are causing the Earth to warm up. The bill would let companies trade so-called pollution rights to cover plants that exceed their limits, and would limit global warming pollution by 2010 to the level it was in 2000.

American Electric Power Co., the nation's largest electricity generating company, is neutral on the bill, partly because the company's carbon dioxide emissions already fall below the cap the bill would impose, said Dale Heydlauff, a senior vice president of environmental affairs of the Columbus, Ohio-based utility.

Heydlauff said the bill offered a "reasonable control program" for emissions at a time when AEP believes human-caused global warming is a real problem.

Lieberman said the bill would affect utilities, refineries and commercial transportation, but not auto manufacturers, farms or residences.

"Like Kyoto, this is an extreme approach," said Republican Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma, who as chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee is the bill's biggest opponent. He has called global warming a hoax perpetrated by environmentalists on the American public.

The administration's stance on global warming has irked critics.

In August, the Environmental Protection Agency said it lacked authority to regulate carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from motor vehicles. In June, CBS News reported that an EPA report on climate change was gutted to eliminate strong language that "climate change has global consequences for human health and the environment" and was "likely mostly due to human activities."