Reid: No cap-and-trade debate until spring

John Kerry and Barbara Boxer had insisted that they wanted to produce a bill on climate change in time to get it on the floor by the end of the year — which, given its political difficulties, would be as late as it could go with any hope of passage.  Harry Reid appears to have driven a stake through the heart of those hopes.  The Wall Street Journal reports that Reid has postponed debate until at least next spring, when legislators will be a lot more sensitive to job losses than carbon-dioxide emissions:

Senate Democratic leaders said Tuesday they would put off debate on a big climate-change bill until spring, in a sign of weakening political will to tackle a long-term environmental issue at a time of high unemployment and economic uncertainty.

Legislation on health care, overhauling financial markets and job creation will be considered before the Senate takes up a measure to cap emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases linked to climate change, Senate Democratic leaders said Tuesday.

Climate legislation will be taken up “some time in the spring,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said Tuesday after a Democratic caucus meeting.

“Some time in the spring” means about the same thing as “the twelfth of Never,” with apologies to Johnny Mathis.  Democrats already had more problems with its moderates from normally red states on health-care reform, but the attack on coal industries in Waxman-Markey would have devastated the Midwest and the Rust Belt.  Under normal circumstances, Reid may have convinced enough of them to go along in a non-election year to at least get to a floor vote, but the ObamaCare debate blew any chance of that.  It has polarized the electorate and generated the biggest push against big government in years.

Now Reid wants to pretend that he’ll have that same debate just a few months before an election.  Best of luck even getting to a cloture vote, Senator Reid.  By that time, Democrats will be attempting to conduct contortionism in order to distance themselves from the radical Obama-Pelosi-Reid agenda — including Reid himself, who looks to be in serious trouble for his re-election bid in Nevada.  The only way Reid wants that debate while trying to paint himself as a flinty, moderate independent to Nevada voters is if he has decided to retire at the end of 2010.  Unfortunately for Reid, he’ll need a number of Democrats to pursue retirement at the same time.

If the Senate doesn’t get to cap-and-trade in 2010, the 112th Congress will have to start over from scratch in 2011.  The chances of jamming another Waxman-Markey through either chamber will be much smaller, especially since it looks like the Democrats have a good chance of losing control of the House.  Reid may as well have just struck the bill from the calendar altogether.