Fake Cap-and-Trade Bill Flatlines

The Lieberman-Warner climate bill, which would have given away polluter credits and essentially be a mass payoff to industries that should be part of the past, is off the table.

Senate sponsors of a major global warming bill lowered expectations yesterday on their chances for final passage as aides scrambled behind the scenes to complete a revamped version of the legislation before next month’s scheduled floor debate.

Environment and Public Works Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) shrugged off suggestions she is having trouble winning over moderates and conservatives from either party in her quest to find 60 votes and squash an inevitable filibuster.

“To tell you the truth, we don’t know if we’ll wind up getting 60 votes this time,” Boxer said in an interview. “But we do believe we’re making tremendous progress and we’re going to start the debate.”

Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), who provided a critical swing vote for the climate bill last winter when it moved out of the EPW Committee, provided a similar assessment. “I don’t think we can count on 60 at this point,” he said.

Good. Let's restart this process in an Obama Administration with a good bill and someone who will use the bully pulpit to push it and have more votes behind him after the elections. Half-measures are not going to be sufficient to the problem. We need to stop looking backwards for solutions, whether it's tolerating polluters without paying a price or trying to drill our way out of the problem and save pennies on the rapidly expanding price of oil. We need a cap and trade system with credits sold at auction, money plowed into alternative energy research and development, tax incentives for wind and solar and plug-in hybrids and massive improvements to mass transit and infrastructure. And until a President is willing to put himself on the line for that new reality, it's not going to happen. So I come to bury Lieberman-Warner, not to praise it.