Tim Dickinson blames Obama for what became official today: the comprehensive energy/climate bill is dead. David Roberts blames Republicans and centrist Democrats, and sees no silver lining.
Yet at the same time, as numerous publications have pointed out, the coal industry has lost its mojo, in part because of campaigns such as the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal efforts, which have halted plans to construct over 125 coal plants in this country, and because the EPA has been empowered to take on climate pollution, which troubles investors. Stopping new coal plants is crucial to climate protection, no doubt. We might have reason for hope, if only we could act now — but seemingly, we as a nation can't.
It's worth looking back at the speech Obama gave a little over a month ago, after the BP disaster became plain, urging action on the comprehensive energy/climate bill. He said:
The one approach I will not accept is inaction. The one answer I will
not settle for is the idea that this challenge is too big and too
difficult to meet.
Barack, I don't believe you any more. Sorry.
[image from the Rolling Stone article by Dickinson]
Kit Stolz 
Wow: love the kicker -‘Barack, I don’t believe you any more’. Call it prescience or cynicism but I never did. I voted for Cynthia McKinney – now there was change I could believe in.
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