It's Hard to Go Green With the Economy in the Red

Bad days on Wall Street are bad news for environmentalists, too. The financial crisis doubles as a boon for critics of proposed greenhouse gas regulations, writes Margaret Kriz for Yale Environment 360. In its aftermath, politicians will be loath to pass laws that hike carbon-based fuel prices and wary of a "cap-and-trade" system that hands control of greenhouse gas emissions to commodities traders.

Environmentalists will only make progress if they recast the fight against global warming as a job creation program. But they'll still need to adjust to reality. "Any bill that’s going to pass the Senate and the House and be signed by the president, whoever it is, will have to come from the middle," says an expert on climate policy. (More global warming stories.)