Sen. Harry Reid has pulled [1]the Climate Change bill, recognizing that he does not have the necessary 60 votes to move forward. This is a shame first and foremost because, as Pope Benedict made clear in his passionate New Year’s address [2], caring for the environment is a profound and urgent moral obligation. It is also a shame because a straight up-or-down vote would have exposed GOP obstructionism yet again.

It has been a bad year for the environment. First the oil spill in the Gulf and now this.