WASHINGTON -- When PennEnvironment organizer Adam Garber got the news, he was sitting in a café in the Hart Senate Office Building with four energetic Pennsylvanians in town to lobby for a comprehensive climate bill.

"I almost don't want to check," he said Tuesday afternoon, reaching for his iPhone. The news alert confirmed Mr. Garber's fears: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had just announced that he could not find 60 votes for a bill to put a price on carbon emissions. Instead, Mr. Reid would move forward with a scaled-back bill targeting the Gulf Coast oil spill and promoting home weatherization.

Heading into this Congress, with large Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress and a new Democratic administration, Mr. Garber and like-minded activists around the country were hopeful for a dramatic bill to address greenhouse gas emissions.

The House of Representatives narrowly passed a bill in June 2009 to create a cap-and-trade system in which businesses buy and sell emissions credits, but similar proposals never garnered enough support in the Senate to break a Republican filibuster.

So Mr. Reid unveiled a bill Tuesday that tackles the BP spill by requiring oil companies to pay 49 cents a barrel into a spill liability trust fund, increasing the liability cap to $5 billion and mandating companies draft more thorough spill response plans.

In addition, the bill hands out $5 billion for the Home Star home weatherization program, $3.8 billion in tax credits for vehicles that run on natural gas and a $400 million pilot program to create plug-in electric car infrastructure in select communities.

Mr. Reid intends to bring it for a vote before the end of next week, when the Senate is scheduled to leave town for its August recess. It's unclear whether the bill will be able to garner any Republican support.

Environmental and clean energy advocates said promoting weatherization of homes -- a project initiated in last year's stimulus bill -- is a good step, but far short of what they had been working for.

"We believe [a climate bill is] going to create jobs, and the big bulk is going to be renewables," said James Lewis, a Pittsburgh-based representative of the Utility Workers Union of America. "Retrofitting plants to clean coal or renewable energy, that's good for us. ... But it looks like it's not going to happen [this year]."

Environmental and clean energy advocates pointed fingers at the coal and oil industries -- which have mounted massive lobbying campaigns against the legislation -- while vowing to continue the fight to price carbon emissions.

"It's kind of outrageous," said Benjamin Freed, of Repower America. "It's a minority of senators who are essentially bought and paid for by the oil and gas industry. ... We were outspent, and a lot of money will buy you not a lot of actions."

Conservatives, industry groups, and the numerous legislators who refused to back a cap-and-trade system argued that higher utility bills and job losses in the utility sector are a poor choice when the country is in an economic slump.

Jack Gerard, president of the American Petroleum Institute, continued in that vein Tuesday during a conference call with reporters, in which he opposed Mr. Reid's bill as burdensome on the oil and gas industry.

"We should be focused on jobs and economic recovery, and anytime we impose additional costs on one of the largest job creators in the economy, we run the risk that we are going to stifle economic activity," he said.

Cap-and-trade legislation proved most unpopular in parts of the country where its effects would be more acutely felt -- areas like Western Pennsylvania that rely on heavy industry and fossil fuel sources.

In the House, Reps. Jason Altmire, D-McCandless, Kathy Dahlkemper, D-Erie, and Tim Murphy, R-Upper St. Clair, voted against the climate bill. Rep. Mark Critz, D-Johnstown, who took office after it passed, said during his campaign that he would not have supported it.

But both of the state's senators supported the bill and were working to lessen the blow on the coal industry and consumers. The final proposal pitched in the Senate -- the work of Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who pulled out at the last minute and refused to back the bill -- would have used some of the legislation's revenue to ease utility bills and had the support of many big corporations, including utilities.

Despite last week's setback, Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., said he hoped for a larger bill this year.

"I think you need to continue the discussions and the momentum that's built up so you don't lose time or lose momentum in August to do something in the fall," Mr. Casey said. "I don't think we have the luxury of saying we're just going to drop it and get back to it later."

President Barack Obama, in a statement to reporters after meeting with Congressional leaders, said Tuesday that Mr. Reid's bill is "only the first step" and added, "I intend to keep pushing this issue forward."

Yet even the most green-eyed activists acknowledged that Mr. Reid essentially waved the white flag on getting a cap-and-trade bill done this year. And it is a near-certainty that there will be fewer Democratic senators come January.

So groups that have backed a bill -- ranging from environmental groups to businesses to labor unions to religious organizations -- are regrouping. In the absence of legislation, the Environmental Protection Agency might step in with harsh emissions restrictions, and other federal agencies are promoting clean energy and efficiency through various programs.

The groups vowed to continue hounding Congress as well, by organizing and rallying the public in favor of climate legislation. The threefold message that a bill will help quell global warming, cut down on oil imports that fund hostile nations and create "green" jobs will remain unchanged. The bill's advocates pointed to polls showing that a majority of Americans favor imposing restrictions on carbon emissions.

"Before people say the message -- which is the truth -- didn't work, a majority supports this and a minority is using procedural games to block this," Peter Lehner, executive director of the Natural Resources Defense Council said.

"All of our messages every day get stronger. This isn't a time to think our messages aren't fundamentally correct. ... There's only so long that people will be able to deny reality."

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