Cap-and-trade prospects after the elections

"The changing political landscape could cripple efforts to pass a climate bill, said David Bookbinder, who served as Sierra Club's chief climate counsel until his resignation in May. 'They couldn't get a climate bill through the Senate with 59 Democratic votes,' he said. 'What are they going to do when they have 53 or 54?'

But Paul Bledsoe, a strategist at the bipartisan National Commission on Energy Policy, said the presumption that the next Congress will be less likely to act on climate may not be accurate.

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