Cap and trade looking deader than ever

Appearing on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday, Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) predicted that not even a majority of the Senate’s Democrats would stand behind Obama’s pledge to provide billions of dollars in U.S. aid to help developing countries deal with the effects of global warming.

And Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who is working with Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) on a bipartisan climate change bill, acknowledged on CNN’s “State of the Union” that some of his colleagues will view the Copenhagen deal as “ineffective,” even though it adds “some transparency that we don’t have today.”…

“If China will not let us verify, we’re going to have a heck of a time here,” said Sen. Ted Kaufman (D-Del.). “An agreement’s no good if you can’t verify.”

“The reality for states like Pennsylvania is, even as we move forward with any kind of climate change legislation, there are going to be cost impacts,” said Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.). “We want to make sure we’re not adding yet another cost impact that other countries don’t have to shoulder.”