Climate Change Bill May Hinge On Recalcitrant Progressives

By The Huffington Post News Team, Huffington Post

As a vote on a controversial climate change bill approached on Friday afternoon, Democrats on the Hill were turning their attention to progressive Democrats rather than attempting to recruit more Republican support for the measure.

The late-stage whip count on the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 has produced a particular political irony. A measure crafted by two Democrats in the House of Representatives -- Reps. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.) -- over the course many years could hinge on the willingness of members of their own party to compromise.

At the heart of the issue is a belief among some progressives that the bill's standard for carbon emission reductions have been set too low, and that the measure itself is too easy on both the coal industry and farmers. Already, according to Hill aides, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) has said that he will not support the bill regardless of whether his own amendments are approved. High-ranking officials involved with whipping votes tell the Huffington Post that there are at least three or four other liberals who are withholding their support. Reps. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) and Rush Holt (D-N.J.) were two names put forward by multiple sources. Neither office immediately returned request for comment.

For a bill that could be decided by one or two votes, holdouts could make all the difference.

"The irony here is that this bill, which people like Waxman and others have been...