No US Senate Climate Bill Before Northern "Early Spring". (November 18, 2009)

US Senator John Kerry (D–MA) told reporters late Monday that he won't try to bring the Senate climate bill to the floor before Copenhagen, which will begin in less than three weeks.

Last week, Senator Kerry had said he thought a compromise climate bill could be developed at least in outline form before the Dec. 7-18 global warming summit in Copenhagen where the United States will be one of some 190 counties expected to attend.

The Senator, who heads the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and is leading Senate negotiations on a compromise bill said he and other Democrats are working toward "trying to see if we can get this to the [Senate] floor sometime in the early spring, as early as possible."

There appears now to be a growing consensus that the Copenhagen meeting will yield little more than a few political promises. In its stead there is now a look towards a comprehensive deal in Bonn in June 2010 or even later that year at yet another meeting.

In these circumstances the probability of the Rudd government getting anything like a meaningful ETS through the Senate before the end of next week looks to be ever less likely.