Though the trajectory has been sinking for months, and was not aided by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, perhaps the worst environmentl disaster ever, Senate Democrats made it official Thursday afternoon that they will not be pursuing a on comprehensive energy bill that would seek to limit greenhouse gas emissions.
Over a year ago, the Nancy Pelosi led House passed a climate change bill that included a cap-and-trade provision, but Senate Democrats could never gain momentum to pass a similar bill to match up with it in Congress' upper house.
Although Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says the GOP refused to play ball (though the only solid possible vote was South Carolina's Lindsey Graham, who took himself out of sponsoring the bill with John Kerry and Joe Lieberman when the Obama administration hinted that they might pursue an immigration bill), the fact of the matter is that the Democrats had a devil of a time trying to procure the 60 votes needed to break a filibuster because of several of their own Senators whose stances on energy differed in part by region, such as West Virginia's Jay Rockefeller, who thought that the bill would harm coal producers who predominate in his state.
This article appears in Jul 22-28, 2010.