US climate Bill dies; hope for 2009

A US carbon-capping Bill aimed at curbing climate change died on Friday in the Senate but its supporters looked to the next President to enact a global warming law as early as next year.

The Bill aimed to cut total US global warming emissions by 66 per cent by 2050. Opponents said it would cost jobs and raise fuel prices in an already pinched American economy.

Far from being discouraged, Senator Joe Lieberman said international observers would be gratified that the measure got support from a majority in the Senate, including presumptive presidential nominees John McCain and Barack Obama. "I think people around the world are going to be greatly encouraged by the fact that 54 members of the US Senate are saying they want to support a real response to global warming," Mr Lieberman, the independent senator from Connecticut who sponsored the Bill, said after the measure ended with a procedural vote.

The vote showed 48 senators favoured the Bill with 36 opposed. Six more senators, including Illinois Democrat Mr Obama and Arizona Republican Mr McCain, wrote letters saying they would have voted in favour if they had been in town to vote. Sixty votes were needed to take the Bill to the next stage of consideration.

"In America change doesn't happen overnight, it takes time to turn the ship of state," said Senator Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat who shepherded the Bill.

She noted that Senate climate change legislation was first introduced in 2003 and the 2005 version got only 38 votes. "This is coming," Ms Boxer said.

She said supporters planned to start work next week on a "roadmap" for the next President.