A week after major climate change legislation was introduced in the U.S. Senate, conservation advocates from North Carolina visited Capitol Hill today to gauge the views of Sens. Richard Burr and Kay Hagan.

Carrie Clark, executive director of the Conservation Council of North Carolina, said she found meetings in both offices "positive," and that both senators are interested in tackling the issue, Barb Barrett reports.

"From Senator Burr we were happy to hear that he sees climate change as a problem and is working hard, and he thinks we need immediate action to avert the impacts that North Carolina is likely to face," Clark said in an interview.

Clark met with staff members in the office of Burr, a Winston-Salem Republican. She was told Burr wants to make sure that legislation doesn’t bring too many negative impacts to residential and commercial energy consumers, and that he wants to see jobs coming into the state.

In another meeting, Hagan, a Greensboro Democrat, told Clark she has concerns about the legislation’s costs, but that she’s interested in finding a solution on climate change.

"She totally gets it, and we worked with her when she was a state senator, too," Clark said.

The bill, introduced last week by Sens. John Kerry of Massachusetts and Barbara Boxer of California, would force the U.S. to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent by 2020, and by 80 percent by 2050.

The House narrowly passed its own climate change legislation this summer. While in Washington today, Clark said she also stopped by the office of U.S. Rep. Heath Shuler, a Waynesville Democrat, to thank him for his vote on the House bill.

U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan ran into Sonia Sotomayor in the women's room.

The Greensboro Democrat and Sens. Susan Collins and Barbara Boxer were using the facilities when the Supreme Court nominee came in today during a visit to Capitol Hill, MSNBC reports.

"There was a light-hearted conversation, they said, that women could also conduct official business in the restroom as men have for years," the new channel reported.

The N.C. Democratic Party has filed a complaint against U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole.

In a letter today to the heads of the Senate Ethics Committee, chairman Jerry Meek writes that Dole has used the same picture of herself on both her official Senate Web site and on her private re-election campaign site. 

"The use of such a photograph is an improper use of official government property and may confuse and mislead voters who compare the two websites," he wrote Sens. Barbara Boxer and John Cornyn.

Under Senate Ethics Rules, government resources cannot be used for campaign purposes.

Meek argues that since the photograph of Dole is the only one on her Web site, it "can only be assumed" that it is her official photograph, and therefore can't be used on the campaign site. 

Dole is apparently fond of the photograph. Her Senate staff asked Dome to replace an older picture of her on our political profiles page on our Web site with it several months ago.

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole, a Salisbury Republican, co-sponsored Democratic legislation this week that would require the federal government to limit levels of a harmful chemical sometimes found in drinking water – including in the wells of Camp Lejeune.

The bill, introduced Wednesday by Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York, aims to protect residents from trichloroethylene, commonly known as TCE, reports Barb Barrett. The chemical is found in paint, adhesives, spot removers and solvents used to clean metal parts.

The chemical was present in drinking water at Camp Lejeune wells from the 1950s until the 1980s. The problems of Camp Lejeune’s water have been known, but Congress has been re-visiting the issue in hearings this summer.

Other senators co-sponsoring the bill include Sens. Barbara Boxer of California, John Kerry of Massachusetts and Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey.

Correction: An earlier post listed the wrong state for Kerry.

Read more after the jump.

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