Senate Democrats pulled a long-stalled measure on global warming from the floor last week after failing to muster enough votes to overcome a Republican-led filibuster.

Sen. Joseph Lieberman and Sen. John Warner were the prime sponsors of the global warming bill that was scuttled on Capitol Hill.According to the Washington Post, [1] that outcome highlights the obstacles that will stand in the way of enacting meaningful cuts in greenhouse gases, even with a new president and Congress next year. The Lieberman-Warner bill would have required greenhouse gas emissions to be cut 18 percent below 2005 levels by 2020 and nearly 70 percent by mid-century.

Some environmentalists, however, cheered the bill's demise. The Environmental Justice Forum on Climate Change [2], a coalition of more than 25 local organizations representing Asian-American, Native American, African-American, Latino and indigenous communities throughout the country, opposes cap-and-trade policies that they say enrich polluters and may create pollution hot-spots.

Here in New York, it also appears that the state may miss the September launch of an 11-state program meant to fight global warming by limiting greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. Click here [3] to read the Albany Times Union story.