The Democratic leadership in the US Senate has suspended efforts to pass a climate change bill. It abandoned not only its planned comprehensive cap-and-trade measure, similar to one already passed by the House of Representatives, but also a more modest bill aimed at electric utilities. The Senate will most likely pass an energy bill of some sort, but this will barely even pretend to make progress on curbing greenhouse gas emissions.
美國參議院的民主黨領(lǐng)導(dǎo)層已不再推動(dòng)通過氣候變化法案。他們放棄的不僅是計(jì)劃中的全面的“限量及交易”(cap-and-trade)議案——類似于眾議院已經(jīng)通過的議案，而且還放棄了一項(xiàng)針對(duì)電力公用事業(yè)企業(yè)的更溫和的議案。參議院極有可能通過某種形式的能源法案，但這份法案將幾乎不會(huì)假裝在抑制溫室氣候排放上取得進(jìn)展。這種放棄結(jié)束了自1997年《京都議定書》(Kyoto protocol)開始的故事，其高潮出現(xiàn)在去年12月的哥本哈根氣候變化峰會(huì)上。在那場(chǎng)期待很久的峰會(huì)上，全球各國政府希望用一套更為有效的新制度來取代《京都議定書》，后者在解決氣候變化問題上未曾取得任何可以察覺的進(jìn)展。結(jié)果他們空手而歸。