Tribune News Service’s Jim Tankersley reports that politicians and activists preparing to fight the next battle over climate-change legislation are closely watching the health-care debate, looking for tips on how best to advance their positions in the current political environment:

Noting conservatives’ success in packing town meetings with outspoken critics of Democrats’ healthcare plans, both environmentalists and business groups have begun trying to turn out energetic crowds of grassroots activists to dominate public forums devoted to the issue.

Supporters have begun to worry that Republican strategists will come up with a line of attack similar to the “death panels” charge, in which Democrats were accused – falsely –of proposing to create oversight bodies to deny care to terminal and other severely sick patients.

Obama’s supporters are concerned in particular that the other side will charge that the “cap and trade” system could be abused to make millions for Wall Streeters.

Opponents are already pounding economics, too, changing that the bill would send gasoline and electricity prices soaring and kill U.S. jobs — allegations the bill’s supporters say are largely untrue; in fact, they say, shifting to a more climate-friendly economy will create more jobs.

Critics have also taken up the big-spending, big-government intrusion argument often raised by critics of the health legislation.

The greenhouse gas limits at the center of the climate bill are “just another layer of government regulation on our energy sector,” said Thomas J. Pyle, president of the American Energy Alliance, a non-profit funded in part by energy companies that launched a radio ad campaign against the bill in Midwestern states this week.

Filter out the bias, and there’s still some interesting information in the piece.