For most of the past year, environmentalists have had the same lament. Politicians are hyper-focused on health care to the point that any progress on climate-change legislation has been slowed to a halt.

I have been one to agree. Sure, the House passed a cap-and-trade bill last year and there were some rumblings in the Senate of a bipartisan deal at the time of Copenhagen, but the buzz quickly faded. On the heels of a watered-down deal from Copenhagen, the climate change effort was all but flat-lined as scientific research was attacked as false.

But with spring comes new hope and it has arrived again with climate change legislation. As health care nears toward an endgame, President Obama added some life into the climate change effort by inviting 14 senators to the White House for a meeting on a  possible bipartisan deal. This runs contrary to the approach in health-care, when the president let Congress take the reins for awhile before he eventually stepped in to try to control the debate.

The bipartisan effort also came with Obama putting forth Republican ideas such as nuclear power and off-shore drilling (which aren’t great for the environment). It seems likely that those ideas will be included in the bill. It took far longer in the health-care debate for the president to give in on some GOP demands.

Other ideas that were bandied about include capping emissions and auctioning off “emission” credits, of which the proceeds may be returned to taxpayers. It will not be easy and any regulations might not go into effect for 5 years (which could be too late for the environment). Also, senators with states that rely on coal or oil will try to obstruct this bill, but there is talk and hopefully there will be movement.