Spring may have sprung and Al Gore came and went this past week with nary a winter storm on Capitol Hill, but it appears that his chilling effect endures. One story earlier today noted how Dems are backing away from cap-and-trade, as certain among us predicted while chiding the thumb-suckers to stop quivering already and fight. Now, on the heels of Gore’s Friday sermon, here’s the “Breaking News” from Greenwire:

CLIMATE: Energy and Commerce panel’s markup of global warming, energy bill postponed
Democratic leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee have postponed plans for a markup this week of a sweeping energy and global warming bill to allow more time for interparty negotiations …[saying] that they would wait at least until next week before beginning the subcommittee markup on their proposed legislation.
…The Democrats said hearings last week were “very helpful in airing the issues” on their draft 648-page bill, also known as the “American Clean Energy and Security Act.” “The hearings have spurred productive discussions between members on the legislation, which are continuing this week,” Waxman and Markey added….
A spokesman for ranking member Joe Barton (R-Texas) suggested the delay means Democrats simply do not have the votes to pass the bill. “After a week of hearings and a public plan to vote, you vote,” said Larry Neal. “Unless you’re going to lose. Then you stop and think about how not to lose.”

Ah, to be a fly on the wall in those “productive discussions.” I’m guessing they’re a lot like the ones that went on during the BTU debacle in 1993 — which I notice even commentators who were in short pants at the time are now citing as the operative parallel, even cribbing a particular notice that it is now a noun and a verb (as in “get BTU’d”). Now, if only a certain senator who asked me what BTU meant would follow . . .