The answer, I think, is something approaching “yes,” although probably for broader reasons than Kate implies in her piece. The real issue at hand is the fundamental weakness of the House vis-à-vis the Senate. Last spring, when we were all obsessing over every detail of the climate debate in the House Energy and Commerce Committee, I think we didn’t quite appreciate just how subordinate the House had become to the Senate, for the simple reason that we hadn’t yet seen the health care sausage-making play out.

Now it seems clear that if health care is to pass at all, House liberals will be forced to swallow their pride and pass a much less progressive Senate bill verbatim, even if there’s room for some smallish changes via reconciliation down the line. Likewise with climate legislation: For all the weeks and months of work that went into producing — and whipping the votes for — the Waxman-Markey bill, the liberals in the lower chamber will almost certainly have to bite the bullet and pass something resembling whatever eventually comes out of the Senate (if anything).

One has to wonder when the House will lose its desire for vigorous debate over its bills — given that they’re likely to be supplanted by their Senate counterparts — and when we in the media will stop devoting so much ink (or so many pixels) to House debates that are likely to be rendered close to meaningless. I know I, for one, feel a bit silly for having spent so much time scrutinizing every compromise that threatened to undermine the efficacy of the Waxman-Markey bill, now that they all seem just about moot.

“The environmental, economic, and public health threats of global warming – both in the United States and around the world – require a strong climate bill,” the letter says. “We are profoundly concerned that as currently written, H.R. 2454 (American Clean Energy and Security Act or ‘ACES’) falls far short.”

Among other changes, the letter calls for a lower cap on carbon emissions and the elimination of loopholes and “massive subsidies to coal and oil.”

This message is not going uncontested, however; the energy lobbies have been pushing in the opposite direction. Last month, the president of the Edison Electric Institute, an electric power industry group, sent a letter (PDF) to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), urging the Senate to “help reduce the costs of any cap-and-trade program to energy consumers” by lowering short-term emissions reduction targets and eliminating certain restrictions on free pollution allowances and offsets. EEI has also launched an energy information campaign through a new Website that promotes its side of the cap-and-trade story.

While it’s possible that the relatively liberal Environment and Public Works Committee will draft a bill with stronger environmental protections than its House counterpart, few expect the full Senate to collect 60 votes for such a bill.

I asked him what he and his fellow House members who passed the American Clean Energy and Security Act are doing to try to persuade their Senate counterparts to pass a bill. And it appears they’ve done more than has been widely reported.

Shortly after the passage of the House bill, Inslee said, he and a group of Democratic congressmen met with 14 moderate Democratic senators to discuss the legislation. He was surprised at their reception.

“I’ve never seen this happen before in my entire time in public life: there were members of the United States Senate actually listening to members of the House of Representatives,” he said. “There wasn’t one of them that looked like a closed mind to me.”

“Our job is to help them find a way to get to yes,” he continued. “But the attitude that we have is not threatening or intimidating, it’s, ‘How can we help you get to yes? What issue can we help you with?’”

Inslee’s two home-state senators are solid “yes” votes on climate legislation, but his colleagues, particularly those from Midwestern states, could have a real impact if, as Inslee said, they continue to pressure their Senate colleagues.

But fear not, climate change deniers and oil company executives! House Republicans have just unleashed their secret weapon, sure to defeat the dangerous legislation. It comes in the form of a scintillating best-of video, capturing Republicans’ most powerful tirades against Waxman-Markey. And just in case the arguments themselves don’t bowl you over, the heroic soundtrack will.

Here it is, courtesy of Grist: