Regardless whether you are relieved or disappointed, almost everyone is surprised in the way that it has fizzled out (after being a campaign priority for Obama) and FP invites 5 experts with varying views to weigh in. They each make interesting points that all seem to have a bit of truth to them. If I did have to choose the two strongest factors:
1. The economy - The Climate Bill is popularly viewed as a tax of some sort regardless of implementation. No one wants to further hamstring an economy and add doubt to growth prospects when we haven't yet seen any encouraging signs of job growth.
2. Obama - Two things happened here: a) Obama decided to throw his political weight behind healthcare reform (so that a supposedly unified house and senate were working on different priorities) and b) The attempted insertion of a climate proposal in last year's spending bill scared alot of people. If climate change is a political priority, why slip it in the back door of an omnibus spending bill?
I think Climategate took alot of wind out of the sails as well in terms of the everyman's confidence in the reality of human-influence on the global climate.Hat tip Big Picture
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