Email a friend

Dead policy walking? That’s how one blogger described global warming legislation in the U.S. Senate — which Majority Leader Harry Reid put on ice this week, astutely recognizing the public and the politics are against this turkey.

"We’re going to try to do that sometime in the spring,” Reid said. But everyone knows the cap-and-trade bill crafted by Sens. Barbara Boxer of California and John Kerry of Massachusetts is deader than dead, because no one wants to face the voters next November having voted for an economy restricting, jobs-killing bill. Reid, facing a tough re-election race in Nevada, knows this better than most.

The development makes Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Tulsa, look like a prophet for predicting its demise even after the House of Representatives passed its version of cap and trade in June. Inhofe knew the arm bars and full nelsons used to force the bill through the House wouldn’t hold sway in the Senate.

The legislation would require the United States to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases 20 percent by 2020 — levels last seen in 1977. The penalty in job losses and costs passed on to consumers make no sense, especially with unemployment in double digits. Reid’s sounding of retreat was an easy call.

Fading along with Boxer-Kerry is any prospect next month’s global warming conference in Denmark will do more than emit its own share of hot air. Oddly, Cap-and-trade disciples think that will relieve pressure, helping their legislation get through the Senate next year, the technical term for which is "whistling past the graveyard.”