Earlier this week, Think Progress reported that among Republicans vying for 37 Senate seats this November, only Representative Mike Castle of Delaware supported action on climate change. But in that state’s Republican primary on Tuesday, Tea Party candidate Christine O’Donnell knocked the nine-term congressman out of the running for the Senate seat once held by Joe Biden. Upstart O’Donnell refers to cap-and-trade energy legislation, which Castle supported in 2009, as “Nancy Pelosi’s cap and tax energy scheme.” That leaves this year’s Senate pool empty of support for climate legislation.
But what about Arizona Senator John McCain (R), who cosponsored the first Senate bill calling for mandatory greenhouse-gas reductions and earned the League of Conservation Voters endorsement in 2004? He has been on the climate sidelines since 2008, and there is little hope that he will return to green issues any time soon.
--Reed McManus
