Three weeks after the House passed its landmark climate bill -- Obama-powered legislation that would cap greenhouse-gas emissions and even restrict trade with environmentally unfriendly countries -- the bill is spitting and sputtering in the Senate.
Leading the feet-dragging on the Democrats' side? Obama gal pal and Missouri's own Claire McCaskill, who fears the Great-ish Recession might not be the best time for a midwestern lawmaker to ding the manufacturing and energy industries.
McCaskill, to be sure, is not alone among Democrats stalling on the bill. When the party met earlier this week, Mother Jones reported that they ...
... emerged from today's caucus lunch with, yet again, not much to say in the way of details on their energy package. And even in the wake of the worst environmental disaster in US history, it's looking increasingly likely that the Senate will not only fumble climate legislation, but even fail to move a basic package of energy reforms in response to the oil spill.
Talking to the magazine afterward, Senate leader Harry Reid blamed an inability to lure Republicans for the bill's lack of momentum. But McCaskill immediately kneecapped that argument by refusing to even talk about the bill with reporters: "I'm not going to talk about energy. I got burned twice last week."
How'd she get burned? It's unclear. But she did become a mascot for Democratic fence-sitting in a story by Politico last week:
"We've got to be very careful with what we do with this legislation," Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), a near--constant cable surrogate during Obama's presidential campaign, told Missouri talk radio show host Mike Ferguson last week. "We need to be a leader in the world, but we don't want to be a sucker."
McCaskill has an especially good reason to fear sucker status, since Missouri is home to the world's largest private-sector coal company. St. Louis-based Peabody Energy raked in $6 billion in revenue in 2009, and McCaskill fears being seen as anything less than supportive of that and other companies' desire to continue piling up money.
There's also some money in it for her, although not much: According to Follow the Coal Money, she's raised $50,000 in campaign contributions from the energy industry, including some spare change ($10,000) from Peabody.
So as pressure mounts for the Senate to act on a bill considered a key play in Obama's legislative playbook, so too will it mount on McCaskill. But, when she's talking anyway, she doesn't sound close to backing down.
"His priorities are important to this country, and I campaigned for them," she told Politico. "[But] I think he knows I'm going to call it like I see it for my state, as opposed to just being a reliable vote for the D column."
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