The Sierra Club said that a U. S. Senate plan to ditch the "cap-and-trade" approach to climate legislation may represent the best shot at passing a bill this year.

Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club, told The Washington Post in a story published Saturday," The Senate is understanding this is not a simple problem -- it's multiple problems, and it requires multiple solutions."

A plan developed by Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S. C., John Kerry, D-Mass., and Joseph Lieberman, Ind-Conn., would apply different carbon controls to individual sectors of the economy instead of setting a national target.

The cap-and-trade approach in which facilities would buy and sell pollution credits to meet a national limit on gas emissions would be killed by the plan.

The Post reported that Graham, Kerry and Lieberman propose cutting greenhouse gasses by targeting electric utilities, transportation and industry.

The Post further added that utility plants would face an emissions' cap that would become stricter over time. Motor fuel could be subject to a carbon tax whose proceeds could help boost the U. S. transportation sector. Industrial facilities could be exempted from a cap on emissions for several years and then a cap would be phased in. (With input form agencies)