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His comments came after Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham (S.C.), who had been working on the bill with Kerry and Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), backed away from it<\/a> in protest over a decision by Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to move first on an immigration bill.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n “It’s practically a rite of passage. No serious legislation ever makes it very far in Congress before it’s declared dead—at least once, sometimes two or three times,” Kerry said.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Kerry praised Graham for having “invested enormous amounts of time” in the effort to do “the hard, grinding work” on the compromise legislation.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The House of Representatives passed its version of the bill last year, creating a cap-and-trade program that would set a limit on greenhouse-gas emissions and create a market for trading pollution rights.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Senate bill was to have set a price on carbon pollution and promoted offshore oil drilling, new nuclear plants, and development of renewable energy sources and other “clean” technologies to wean the United States off oil imports.<\/p>\n Related Links:<\/strong><\/p>\n Senate Dem leader vows action on both climate and immigration<\/a><\/p>\n 14 buildings compete to be the Biggest Loser (of energy waste)<\/a><\/p>\n Engineers plan underwater dome to contain Gulf oil spill<\/a><\/p>\n