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<\/p>\nA sad New Year's for cap and trade?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Cap and trade has no chance in 2010, Senate Democrats are saying<\/a>.<\/p>\n At this point in our democracy\u2019s media evolution, it seems almost churlish to point this out, but here goes: 2009 isn\u2019t even over yet, so it feels a bit premature to rule things out for next year.<\/span><\/p>\n But Politico has quoted Sens. Mary Landrieu, (D-La.), and Evan Bayh, (D-Ind.), as saying that a climate change bill will not pass next year. Democratic senators already have too much on their plates with health care and the economy and they\u2019re desperate not to further alienate voters.<\/p>\n Kent Conrad, D-(N.D.), put it\u00a0most succinctly:<\/p>\n Climate change in an election year has very poor prospects. I\u2019ve told that to the leadership.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n We have two thoughts on this:<\/p>\n Lisa Lerer\u2019s story seems to conflate climate bill with cap and trade at some points in her story, but at other times, she separates the two concepts.<\/p>\n But not all climate bills have cap and trade provisions and the concept is so malleable that its easy to slightly alter its form and call it something else (see the \u201cpublic option\u201d debate in health care).<\/p>\n For example, Sen. Maria Cantwell, (D-Wash.), and Susan Collins, (R-Maine), have put forward a cap and dividend bill<\/a> that would return revenue from emissions auctions directly to consumers.<\/p>\n\n