The North Pole is melting faster than anyone had predicted, but there's also a thaw in Washington DC. For seven years, the Bush/Cheney administration has consigned any talk of mandatory carbon limits to the deep freeze, while pressuring government scientists to water down evidence of climate change.

Suddenly, though, the mood in the nation's capital is changing. It could be incontrovertible evidence that climate change is happening. Or it could be the parade of executives from companies like GE, General Motors and Duke Power, who have formed a lobby, called US-Climate Action Partnership (US-CAP), and are telling Congress that limits on greenhouse gasses are necessary.

Whatever the reason, Congress appears heading towards legislating mandatory carbon caps. And it's not just Democrats. Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and John Warner (R-Va.) are submitting a bill that calls for caps and for a carbon-trading regime. And Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chair Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) is vowing to shepherd it to passage.