Dem. Sen Jay Rockefeller sounds extremely conflicted and confused about regulating a harmless trace atmospheric gas

Rockefeller Finds It's Better to Negotiate on Climate Bill Than Sit on Sidelines - NYTimes.com

"I cannot strategically negotiate and fight for West Virginia's future if I just say no outright," he said last week.
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"I think doing nothing at all on legislation causes three horrible things to happen, all of which mean the end of the coal industry. And people don't think of that because they hear 'cap and trade' and they say they don't like it," he said.

"How many don't understand it is another question," Rockefeller added. "But if you don't do it at all, you just do nothing, and just say no, natural gas probably is firing all present coal power plants within three or four years. Secondly, Wall Street, there being no legislation, therefore no predictability, lends no money to people trying to build power plants. And it just cedes completely to the EPA newly empowered by the Supreme Court under very strict terms to just tear at carbon related things. All of that is talking about the end of coal and that is not where I want to be at all for West Virginia."
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In 2003 and 2005, Rockefeller supported a cap-and-trade bill authored by Lieberman and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). Then, last summer, he supported Democratic leaders as another climate bill sputtered on the floor.
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After last summer's Senate floor debate, Rockefeller quickly joined up with nine other moderate Democrats to detail a range of outstanding concerns that had not been addressed. And following Obama's first speech to a joint session of Congress, Rockefeller gave an emphatic "no" when asked whether he thought the president's comments about cap-and-trade legislation would build momentum this year.

"Cap and trade won't work," he said.

Regardless of his thoughts on cap and trade, Rockefeller will play a role in writing the bill.
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At a hearing in late July, Rockefeller said the key to moving climate legislation is bringing a clear message to the public about the serious threat posed by global warming. "Unless the information reaches people who are confronting climate change on the front lines, it's for naught," Rockefeller said at the time. "It is time to take science out of the labs and into our communities."

The senator had little patience for anyone skeptical that climate change is happening and human activities are the main driver. "Climate change is happening," Rockefeller said. "Scientists agree. The people that say it's not happening -- well, have a nice day" (Climatewire, July 31).