ABC The Drum Unleashed - Who killed the climate bills?

Both defeats can claim many parents: climate change skeptics, conservative politicians in opposition, well-funded lobbyists, vested interests in industry, the complexity of the proposed bills, the failure of international negotiations, and the complacency of ordinary citizens.
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It didn't help that many Democrats opposed the bill, perhaps worried about their electoral prospects this November. Senators like Missouri's Claire McCaskill and West Virginia's Jay Rockefeller were probably never going to vote for it, fearing the backlash in their coal-intensive home states. And one-time Republican allies like John McCain and Lisa Murkowski sniffed the wind of a visceral anti-climate change movement in the Republican right and back-pedalled rapidly on their support for limiting carbon emissions. The result is that US cap-and-trade legislation looks dead in the water.