As Senate Democrats scramble to try and find a climate and energy bill they can get at least some Republican support for, a plan to expand the use of natural gas as a transportation fuel in truck fleets is getting a second look by the U.S. Senate. The chance of getting a cap and trade bill done like the one the House passed last year is pretty slim. So that means the Senate, never a body to move with much haste, is going with a much more narrow approach to control greenhouse gas emissions -- focusing on the electric power plants.

But this new proposal put forth by Senators Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), and Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) and championed by the the oil and gas executive turned energy crusader, T. Boone Pickens, would provide tax breaks for natural-gas-powered vehicles and fueling stations. The proposal does not, however, include any provisions for the massive wind farms and transmission corridors of a scale this planet has never seen -- as the original Pickens' Plan so boldly (or naively) envisioned.