The New York Times today reports how “Legislation to control global warming that once had a passionate but quixotic ring to it is now serious business” in Washington.

The Democrats are increasingly determined to impose the mandatory controls on carbon dioxide emissions, with our major Democratic bills have been announced, with more expected”.

The Times reports: “Many events have combined to create the new direction — forsythia blooming in lawmakers’ gardens in January, polar bears lacking the ice they need to hunt and Al Gore’s movie, “An Inconvenient Truth,” along with pragmatic executives seeking an idea of future costs and, especially, the arrival of a Democratic-controlled Congress. There was evidence of the changed mood all over Washington this week”.

To add excitement, the man of the moment, Senator Barack Obama, Democrat of Illinois, has lent his name to the best-known brand in climate-change legislation, a measure by Senators John McCain, Republican of Arizona, and Joseph I. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut.

So will Obama become President…