Sign of the times: You have to scroll nearly to the end of this typical "clean energy" story to find any mention of climate change - Gloucester, MA

In recent years the color green has all but given up its former connotations in favor of serving exclusively as a buzzword for environmentalists. However, the city of Gloucester knows green is the color of another thing: money.

FT.com / US & Canada - Senate blow to climate change laws

It also underscored the difficulty that Mr Obama will face winning support for his proposed cap-and-trade system even outside of the budget process, raising the possibility of the US arriving empty-handed at the next round of United Nations talks on climate change in Copenhagen in December.
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But the votes demonstrated deep resistance to the central aim of cap-and-trade: to change energy consumption habits by applying a cost to carbon emissions.

Republicans Criticize Cost of Cap-and-Trade Emissions Plan

Until recently, much of the debate on climate change focused on the extent of the threat. But now that House Democratic leaders are planning to take up legislation to set up a mandatory cap-and-trade system for greenhouse emissions sometime this summer, opponents are focusing on the cost.

"They seem to give people the impression that it's going to be a huge environmentally friendly free lunch," said Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis. "This lunch is not free."
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Though it is hard to understand how, Pelosi said she'll make sure no one suffers.

"I will work to see that whatever we do does not increase the burden on rate payers and also has mitigation for business so we can be competitive."