Beleaguered and battered, congressional Republicans have been rolled on the budget and on the stimulus. They face daunting Democratic majorities in the House and the indignity of Arlen Specter's defection in the Senate.
But the minority party has found hope in the fight over a mechanism to reduce greenhouse gases, which, if it fails to pass Congress, could topple the Democratic vision on both energy and the environment.
House Democrats on the Energy and Commerce Committee are conducting nearly round-the-clock negotiations over the so-called cap-and- trade provision. Companies would have to buy permits to emit greenhouse gases, but the provision would allow cleaner companies to sell their credits at a profit.
Cap-and-trade makes it significantly more expensive to burn carbon-based fuels such as coal. Committee chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., is scrambling to get enough moderate and coal-state Democrats to get the bill out of a key subcommittee ...