Is Cap and Trade Dead?
The word from the Beltway is Card Check is being taken off the 2009 agenda, and now Cap and Trade. As I said before, Obama’s political capital is spent.
With the fight over health care reform absorbing all the bandwidth on Capitol Hill, Democrats fear a major climate change bill may be left on the cutting-room floor this year.
A handful of key senators on climate change are almost guaranteed to be tied up well into the fall on health care. Democrats from the Midwest and the South are resistant to a cap-and-trade proposal. And few if any Republicans are jumping in to help push a global warming and energy initiative.
As a result, many Democrats fear the lack of political will and the congressional calendar will conspire to punt climate change into next year.
“The reality is [the health reform bill] is going to happen before cap and trade,” said House Agriculture Committee Chairman Rep. Collin Peterson, who’s been working with farm-state senators on the climate legislation. “Who knows if it will ever come out of the Senate?”
Ed Morrissey is on the same page:
The arm-twisting required for ObamaCare means the White House will have no political capital for any other fights that could split the party.
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Posted by Jay on August 5, 2009 6:36 pm
» Filed Under AGW hyposterics, Anti-Americanism, Anti-Capitalism, Barack Obama, Cap & Trade, Card Check, Congress, Democrats, Energy, Global Warming, Healthcare, News
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