“On the campaign trail in 2008, Barack Obama often said his top two priorities were climate change and health care. By the end of his first term, however, only health care legislation had been signed into law. The effort to pass a climate bill was a total bust, “writes Brad Plumer today in the Washington Post.

So what went wrong? Why did environmentalists fail where health reformers had succeeded? In a massive new report (pdf) published this week, Theda Skocpol tries to answer exactly this question. The Harvard political scientist spent many months interviewing key players and poring over data.

See the full story in Q&A form.

*********************************************************************************************************** For thorough coverage of environmental news, issues, legislation and regulation in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, try a FREE subscription to EnviroPolitics, our daily newsletter that also tracks environment/energy bills–from introduction to enactment ************************************************************************************************************ 
Our most recent posts: 
What’s up? Find out in our Enviro-Events Calendar 
The Seaside Heights, NJ boardwalk, minus the boards
Hearing on open-space funding bills Feb 11 in NJ Senate
More big blades spinning up energy in Pennsylvania
Volunteers surging to the shore to clean up after Sandy