During his 34-year Senate career, Biden, now chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, has been known more as a chieftain of foreign policy than a champion of environmental protections (though he has earned a respectable 84 percent lifetime voting score from the League of Conservation Voters). These days, he's emphasizing how closely geopolitics and environmental stewardship are intertwined. To solve what he sees as the defining challenge of our time, Biden has been pushing for more U.S. involvement in international climate negotiations, more compact fluorescent light bulbs, more-stringent fuel economy regs and a whole lot more biofuels.

How well will Biden be able to balance his energy-independence goals with an ambitious climate agenda? I tracked him down on the campaign trail in Iowa to find out.

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This senator from Connecticut isn't gaining a big boost in popularity from his aggressive environmental stances; he's hovering at 1 to 2 percent in the polls. But will he raise the bar for a strong green agenda in the 2008 presidential race? I called Dodd at his Senate office to find out how much substance there is behind his bold proposals.

For more information on his platform and record, check out this Dodd fact sheet.

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Richardson is no newcomer to energy issues, of course -- he served as secretary of energy at the end of the Clinton administration, and has aggressively pushed clean energy as governor of New Mexico. But some greens might not care for his "clean coal" boosterism or his embrace of "all kinds of biofuel."

I rang up the governor at his office in Santa Fe, N.M., to size up his energy and environmental vision.

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But it hasn't been all hugs and kisses between Obama and environmentalists. Some green activists wrinkle their noses at the senator's overarching emphasis on bipartisan consensus, insisting that real environmental change won't happen without tough partisan battles against entrenched interests. Enviros have also knocked Obama for his support of corn-derived ethanol and liquid coal, both of which would benefit industries in his home state of Illinois but do little if anything to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.

Are the criticisms justified? Does this front-runner have what it takes to tackle the climate crisis and lead America to a cleaner, brighter energy future? To find some answers, I reached Obama by phone in his office in Washington, D.C., between Senate votes.

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But many enviros aren't convinced that Clinton is at the head of the class on green issues, noting that she supports "clean coal" and, like nearly every other 2008 presidential candidate, pounds the drum for corn ethanol. Can she win the green lobby to her side? To get a feel for her chances, I caught Clinton by phone after a picnic on the Iowa campaign circuit.

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The first candidate to call for an 80 percent reduction in greenhouse-gas emissions by 2050 and the first to make his campaign carbon neutral, Edwards has had a pied-piper effect on the other Dem contenders, prompting them to make similar pledges. He has also set himself apart with his call for a freeze on all development of coal power plants until they can be outfitted with carbon-sequestration technology. But the former senator from North Carolina runs with the pack in his enthusiasm for corn ethanol, and his green mantle is a fairly new accessory.

How committed is Edwards to his new green vision? To find out, I caught up with the candidate on his cellphone as he hurtled through the fields of rural Iowa in his campaign bus.

For more info on his platform and record, check out this Edwards fact sheet.

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Last week, the media mogul pledged not only to make his News Corp. empire carbon neutral, but to persuade the hundreds of millions of people who watch his TV channels and read his newspapers to join the cause. Messages about climate change will be woven throughout News Corp.'s entertainment content, he said, from movies to books to TV sitcoms, and the issue will have an increasing presence in the company's news coverage, be it in the New York Post or on "Hannity & Colmes." Yes, as Murdoch said in an exclusive interview on his climate plan, even Fox News' right-wing firebrand Sean Hannity can be expected to come around on the issue.

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No one knows, but Sens. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., and Dick Durbin, D-Ill., think it's time to find out. Two weeks ago, the bipartisan duo introduced a bill that would require federal intelligence agencies to collaborate on a National Intelligence Estimate to evaluate the security challenges presented by climate change.

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The ringleader of this uprising is James Hansen, director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies and one of the world's top climate scientists. Last week he threw down the gauntlet: "There should be a moratorium on building any more coal-fired power plants," Hansen told the National Press Club.

Coal supplies nearly half the electricity in the United States and is responsible for more greenhouse-gas emissions than any other electricity source. The Department of Energy reported last month that 159 new coal-fired power plants are scheduled to be built in the United States in the coming decade, intended to generate enough juice for nearly 100 million homes.

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First there was a rapid-fire succession of four major climate-change bills proposed in the Senate, all of which call for mandatory caps on greenhouse-gas emissions. Then, like a clashing of cymbals after a drumroll, 10 major corporations representing the energy and chemical industries, among others, joined with a handful of major environmental groups in a call for federal emission caps that rivals the most ambitious Senate proposals.

The new coalition, dubbed the United States Climate Action Partnership, brings together many of the usual suspects -- companies that have been publicly advocating federal action on climate change for some time, like GE, DuPont, Duke Energy, Alcoa and Pacific Gas and Electric. But never have these corporate heavies articulated such clear and aggressive policy recommendations.

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Stevens flabbergasted many on Capitol Hill earlier this month when he introduced legislation that would require passenger cars sold in the United States to get an average of 40 miles per gallon within a decade -- a 12.5-mpg increase from today's standards.

Environmentalists could quibble with the particulars -- the bill ignores SUVs and other light trucks, doesn't move as quickly as many would like, and includes a caveat that would let automakers off the hook if the costs of fuel-economy upgrades were determined to outweigh the benefits -- but actually they're just happy that a prominent Republican is joining the battle to raise corporate average fuel economy, or CAFE, standards.

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In the waning hours of the final legislative session earlier this month, Republican leaders pushed through a provision to open up 8.3 million acres on the outer continental shelf of the eastern Gulf of Mexico to oil and gas development. But, perhaps trying to avoid fossil-fuel deposits in their stockings, members of Congress also extended a number of tax incentives for renewable energy.

All of these measures were wedged into the corpulent folds of the Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006, along with heaps of other non-tax-related miscellany on everything from Medicare payments to abandoned-mine cleanups. "It was the last train leaving the Capitol Hill station," said Steve Ellis, vice president of programs at Taxpayers for Common Sense, "one of those must-pass bills that became a smorgasbord of special-interest projects."

The House overwhelmingly passed the behemoth on Dec. 8. Enviros tried to persuade senators to purge the drilling provision, but on Dec. 9 the Senate passed the same version as the House, in a landslide vote of 79-9. President Bush is surely chomping at the bit to sign it. (Oil drilling and tax cuts? Two great tastes that taste great together!)

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That's why Dingell says he's gearing up to hold oversight hearings into the Bush administration's energy and environmental policies, as are his Democratic colleagues Barbara Boxer, soon-to-be-chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, and Henry Waxman, incoming chair of the House Government Reform Committee, which conducts oversight of the U.S. EPA.

Said Boxer at a recent press conference, "Since his first day in office, President Bush has worked to roll back more than 350 laws and regulations that protect our public health and the environment. Any one of these rollbacks should be cause for a hearing in the Congress, should be a cause for consternation among the people. And I have to tell you, this has got to stop."

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But, hyperbole aside, what victories can environmentalists realistically expect on Capitol Hill over the next two years, considering that Congress is still narrowly divided and Dubya still wields a veto pen?

Some key leadership shifts do point toward a dramatic about-face, none more so than Tuesday's announcement that California Democrat Barbara Boxer will replace Oklahoma Republican James Inhofe as chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. "Nowhere is there a greater threat to future generations than the disastrous effects of global warming," Boxer said at a Senate Democratic Caucus meeting on Tuesday. "One of my top priorities will be to spotlight this issue ... with the goal of ultimately bringing legislation to the Senate floor."

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"Let me be clear: The environment won last night!" Sierra Club political director Cathy Duvall exclaimed the next day. "Voters elected a greener U.S. House, a greener U.S. Senate, greener U.S. governors, and they gave a green light to a new energy future."

Gene Karpinski, president of the League of Conservation Voters, said, "This is the first election I can remember in U.S. history that has put such a specific focus on a top-priority environmental issue, which this year has been a clean-energy future."

There's no question that the environment played a central role in some high-profile victories. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger -- one of the few Republicans with anything to smile about on Tuesday -- got a boost from signing into law the nation's first mandatory caps on greenhouse-gas emissions -- and then coasted to victory over Democratic challenger Phil Angelides. "There's certainly a case to be made that he owes his win to climate change," said John Passacantando, executive director of Greenpeace USA.

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