US President Barack Obama's post-midterm election admission that "cap-and trade was just one way of skinning the cat. It was not the only way," seemed to sound the death knell for national carbon cap-and-trade plans in the US after a turbulent couple of years.

Initial success in the House of Representatives with the passage of the Waxman-Markey Bill (the American Clean Energy and Security Act) in June 2009 boosted optimism about climate change becoming a legislative priority during Obama's time