With Obamacare implementation on the ropes, there’s something of a wistful feeling among many of the failed climate bill’s proponents that they wouldn’t be causing the administration anywhere near the same problems. Their legislation had implementation in mind during the drafting phase by leaning on a number of existing programs, including channeling rebates to low income people via the food stamp program to compensate for energy prices that went up because of cap and trade.

But not only did cap-and-trade legislation get left at the altar when the Senate balked, Obamacare’s unsteady debut leaves the future for any big climate proposal even dimmer. Supporters can only think of what might have been – and even some opponents acknowledge global warming might have been an easier governmental lift than health care reform.

“Perfection is an elusive human quality, but the larger picture of economic growth related to the energy sector would have been so profound that I think the benefits would be hard to roll back,” Sen. Ed Markey, the Massachusetts Democrat and former congressman who led the cap-and-trade push in 2009, told POLITICO.