Pastor John Hagee took a little flack for claiming America’s poor economy was God’s punishment for abortion. So can we perhaps infer the massive spike in oil prices today was similar retribution for killing the Lieberman-Warner Climate Protection Act?

Yes, sadly, the most sweeping climate change legislation to date was ground to dust under the weight of an intractable filibuster. The measure drew only 48 votes in a make-or-break decision that would have ended the filibuster. That’s exactly twenty percent shy of the required sixty, and is sure to send proponents of carbon emissions back to the drawing board.

Still, environmental groups were quick to find the silver-lining under the ever-darkening clouds of America’s inability to act on the global warming issue. While only minority voted to support the act, six senators not present for the vote entered into record that they would have supported it, had counts been closer. In the end, only 36 senators, barely 1/3 of the body, and a scant sliver of a percent away from the number required to uphold a veto, officially cast ballots against it.