Bingaman's energy bill: high praise, cloudy prospects

Geoff Styles breaks down in detail the many reasons he prefers Jeff Bingaman's existing energy bill to the non-cap-and-trade provisions of Waxman-Markey. In summary:

My strong preference would be for the Senate to graft a clean version of cap & trade onto Senator Bingaman's energy bill, jettisoning the distortions that Waxman-Markey acquired in the process of lining up enough House votes to ensure passage. Some of those distortions neatly cleaved the natural business coalition against the bill by lavishing so many free emissions allowances on the utility sector, but in the process severely undermined the bill's potential for achieving prompt and significant emissions reductions.

Unfortunately, this grafting seems the least likely path to a Senate cap-and-trade bill, as Styles explains. And with Harry Reid determined to yoke cap-and-trade and the energy bill together, I'm worried that Bingaman's hard-won bipartisan consensus-building will be for naught.