Dead policy walking? That's how one blogger described global warming legislation in the U.S. Senate - which Majority Leader Harry Reid put on ice this week, astutely recognizing the public and the politics are against this turkey.

"We're going to try to do that sometime in the spring," Reid said. But everyone knows the cap-and-trade bill crafted by Sens. Barbara Boxer of California and John Kerry of Massachusetts is deader than dead, because no one wants to face the voters next November having voted for an economy restricting, jobs-killing bill. Reid, facing a tough re-election race in Nevada, knows this better than most.

The development makes Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Tulsa, look like a prophet for predicting its demise even after the House of Representatives passed its version of cap and trade in June. Inhofe knew the arm bars and full nelsons used to force the bill through the House wouldn't hold sway in the Senate.

The legislation would require the United States to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases 20 percent by 2020 - levels last seen in 1977. The penalty in job losses and costs passed on to consumers make no sense, especially with unemployment in double digits. Reid's sounding of retreat was an easy call.

Fading along with Boxer-Kerry is any prospect next month's global warming conference in Denmark will do more than emit its own share of hot air. Oddly, Cap-and-trade disciples think that will relieve pressure, helping their legislation get through the Senate next year, the technical term for which is "whistling past the graveyard."

Those who doubt coal's economic significance should read the testimony of Mike Carey, President of the Ohio Coal Association, delivered before the EPW Committee on Oct. 29. And those concerned about the nation's 10.2 percent unemployment rate should do the same. Carey cited a Penn State University study on the link between coal jobs and the broader economy. As Carey recounted, Penn State found that "every coal worker supports up to eleven other jobs in their community, from shop keepers and barbers to restaurant workers to railroad employees." Moreover "every $1 billion in U.S. coal production stimulates a total production of $3.138 billion of production throughout the economy." This means, according to Penn State, "that every dollar of net coal industry production translates into $3.14 of economy-wide output."

Two senators at odds on climate legislation are joining forces to push for a short-term extension of the highway bill.

"One of the best ways to spur job creation and economic recovery is through infrastructure investment," Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and James Inhofe (R-Okla.), the chairwoman and ranking member of the Environment and Public Works Committee, respectively, wrote in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D) of Nevada and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R) of Kentucky.

"That is why a longer-term extension of the surface transportation program is so important to maintaining our nation's vital bridges, roads, public transportation and other related infrastructure, restoring our economy and creating good jobs for American workers."

Five senators joined Inhofe and Boxer in signing the letter: Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), Max Baucus (D-Mont.), Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) and Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas).

'Now is the time to confront this challenge once and for all," President-elect Obama said of global warming last November. "Delay is no longer an option." It turns out that delay really is an option-the only one that has world-wide support.

Over the weekend Mr. Obama bowed to reality and admitted that little of substance will come of the climate-change summit in Copenhagen next month. For the last year the President has been promising a binding international carbon-regulation treaty a la the Kyoto Protocol, but instead negotiators from 192 countries now hope to reach a preliminary agreement that they'll sign such a treaty when they meet in Mexico City in 2010. No doubt.

Virginia Democratic Sen. Jim Webb said on Monday he would not back the cap-and-trade legislation sponsored by Sens. John Kerry, (D-Mass.) and Barbara Boxer, (D-Calif.), another blow to the troubled Senate climate change bill.

"In its present form I would not vote for it," he said. "I have some real questions about the real complexities on cap and trade."

Webb is the latest in a series of Democratic moderates to raise significant concerns with the climate bill, which has floundered since passing the House in late June.

"That piece of legislation right now is something that is going to cause a lot of people a lot of concern," he said.

Sens. John Kerry, (D-Mass.), Joe Lieberman, (I-Conn.), and Lindsey Graham, (R-S.C.) are working on an outline of their own, bipartisan climate bill that they plan to release before the December climate talks in Copenhagen, Denmark.

On October 28, Brett Vassey, president and CEO of the Virginia Manufacturers Association, told the Senate Committee on Environment and Public works that a cap-and-trade system "allows political leaders to choose ‘winners and losers' in the economy." In Vassey's view, Virginia's manufacturers would be among the losers, for cap-and-trade poses "too much risk for global manufacturers who are making decisions about their future capital investments today." "Virginia and other states," Vassey said, "will lose opportunities to compete and create jobs in the future as long as the threat of [cap-and-trade] exists in the public debate."

Vassey's written testimony neatly and succinctly captures the "truth" about cap-and-trade for Virginia's manufacturers:

With the Kerry-Boxer legislative saga having run its course, EPW Policy Beat is launching a new project called "Hearing Highlights," in which we mine the recent cap-and-trade hearing record for-to borrow a phrase from the past-all "the best that was thought and said." For three days at the end of October, the EPW Committee heard from witnesses representing various constituencies that would endure serious economic harm if cap-and-trade were enacted. Of course, the committee also heard from witnesses that stand to gain-millions in fact-under a cap-and-trade regime. So the hearings accomplished at least one thing: they presented a stark portrayal of who the winners and losers would be. Our focus here is on the "losers"-in other words: consumers, ratepayers, farmers, ranchers, small businesses, manufacturing workers, the Heartland, and coal, to name a few.

Today, we highlight excerpts from testimony by Bob Stallman, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation. As Stallman meticulously recounted, cap-and-trade of the Waxman-Markey, Kerry-Boxer variety would mean certain disaster for America's farmers. One effect of such legislation would be higher fuel and fertilizer costs. This point was captured in the following exchange between Stallman and Sen. Inhofe: (Click Here to Watch)

Environment and Public Works Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer and ranking GOP member Jim Inhofe traded fierce fire last week as their committee battled over whether to move forward with a climate change bill.

But behind closed doors, the California liberal and the Oklahoma conservative say they prefer exchanging global warming gag gifts more than partisan jabs.

Inhofe brags about a mug he gave Boxer that shows sea levels rising to cover certain regions - including most of California - when heated up.

In return, Boxer gave Inhofe a stuffed polar bear - a toy version of an animal that scientists say is gravely threatened by global warming.

"We are really very good friends," said Boxer. "It's a good working relationship we have. People are very surprised about it."