It's Official: U.S. Senators Abandon Cap and Trade

"Cap and Trade is dead," said Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) last weekend. Graham, working in a bipartisan effort with Senator John Kerry (D-Mass) and Joe Lieberman (I-Con) confirmed that the group would be abandoning cap and trade in their last effort to pass a climate bill before the midterm election. The new bill will not put a price on carbon emissions with a carbon market or a carbon tax. Rather, the new legislation will ratchet down caps on widely accepted pollutants from power plants and factories, and possibly increase taxes on gasoline. These funds would be used to fund loan guarantees for nuclear power plant construction and an expansion of domestic natural gas and oil projects. The bill will also call for continued research into clean coal and carbon capture technologies.

"This is a different bill," said Lieberman of the bipartisan effort. Cap and trade has been considered political poison by many Senators as the mid-term elections loom nearer. A recent study by the Pew research group shows that 87% of Americans do not wish to take action against global warming if it costs their household more than $20 per month. Internal memos leaked from the White House say that the old cap and trade bill would have cost almost three times that amount.

Even the revised bill, which is now privately circulating among Senators, is not without opponents. Senator Kerry admitted that they would be far short of the 60 votes needed when the bill became public. Republican Senators who won't approve a gasoline tax and Democratic Senators who won't agree to a bill that does not directly regulate carbon dioxide emissions are expected to vote against it.

Carl Pope, president of Sierra Club, gave positive remarks to the bi-partisan effort but voiced that a carbon tax should be worked into the final bill. Michael Morris of American Electric Power scoffed at this idea, which essentially taxes consumers who buy coal electricity and provides rebates to those who live in areas where nuclear, natural gas, or renewable electricity are available. Morris was quoted as saying a cap and dividend plan would tax "mom in the Midwest and dividend it to Paris Hilton."

With a busy Congressional calendar and an entrenched opposition party making it difficult to move along on major initiatives, the Senate has not yet set a date on reviewing the state of the climate bill. This has international implications, as the United States has not yet established a global warming action plan as directed by the Copenhagen Accord.