Oil Spill Politics

Jillian Bandes | July 12, 2010 9:12 AM

The Gulf catastrophe has surprisingly failed to produce any gains for the environmental movement. WaPo says that might be because climate change alarmists aren't getting the traction they used to after Climategate (though

of course the scientists involved in Climategate have been cleared of any wrongdoing!). But it's also because Americans are less concerned with things like recycling and conservation, and because they don't trust the government to actually fix anything:

Rich Gold, a lobbyist at Holland & Knight who represents manufacturing companies in the climate debate, said people were not willing to rally behind government as an environmental savior.

"There's a feeling: 'The government really can't control all this stuff. They can't keep us safe,' " said Gold, who said he is trying to work out a compromise climate bill that is more amenable to the industry. "After Katrina and 9/11, we're in the post-'government can fix it all' world."