Some environmentalists are hoping Maine's two moderate Republican senators could be the key to breaking the stalemate on clean energy legislation in Congress. This week, Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins met with the President about a strategy for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Senator Snowe says she would support putting a price on carbon emitted from power plants, something environmentalists welcome, other Republicans oppose and scientists say doesn't go far enough.

It was a year ago this week that the U.S. House narrowly passed a bill that would establish a cap-and-trade system for greenhouse gases. The government would set a cap on the amount of greenhouse gases that can be emitted nationally and companies would then buy and sell permits to emit those gases. The higher a company's pollution output, the higher the cost.

Snowe spokesman John Genzel says Snowe has supported putting a price on carbon in the past. "And the bottom line is, and as she said yesterday, this should be an era of praticality given the current economic situation, that whatever Congress pursues should be viewed through that prism."

After meeting with President Obama yesterday, Snowe released a statement saying that the nation cannot afford an economy-wide approach to carbon reduction that could cost consumers another 18 cents a gallon for gasoline in a struggling economy.

But Snowe's expressed willingness to put a price on carbon pollution from power plants is being praised by groups like the Natural Resources Council of Maine and its deputy director Lisa Pohlman. "This is what we have been pushing for and what we have been advocating for for the last year with both of our senators. And the fact that Sen. Snowe has come forward with at least an approach and an idea is forward motion as far as we're concerned."

But some science activists say a tax on utilities doesn't go far enough. "Basically, you're asking the utility industry to shoulder a large burden," says Marchant Wentworth, deputy legislative director of the Union of Concerned Scientists in Washington D.C.

"In our view, such a proposal would have to be coupled with a strong renewable standard, strong action on energy efficiency, oil savings, to really do something about the things that caused the terrible spill in the Gulf. We're not saying it's a terrible idea -- we admire Sen. Snowe for stepping out -- but it has to be combined, in our view, with a larger package."

While some think the prospects are growing in the Senate for a compromise on clean energy legislation, Wentworth is less sure. Republican opposition to any price on carbon is intense. Many call it a tax. This is Republican Congressman Paul Broun of Georgia speaking on the floor of the House earlier this month.

"Lot of old people in Georgia and Florida and all through the southeast and through the southwest are dependent upon their air conditioner just to live. And if their electricity bills go sky high as the energy tax is going to make it happen, if that ever passes, and there are a lot of people that can't afford to run their air conditioner anymore and people actually are going to have a hard time with hyperthermia, is what we call it in medicine as a medical doctor."

Broun went onto say that the high costs of air conditioning could be fatal to some people in that part of the country. Against that type of opposition and with millions of gallons of oil continuing to pour into the Gulf of Mexico, Andrew Kain of Repower Maine says Snowe's position is important.

"Senators from across the aisle, from both sides, are looking for that compromise. Her show of leadership is really encouraging to us," Kain says. "This is an important first step. We need to do more. The U.S. Senate needs to send a strong signal to clean energy markets that the path forward is setting a price on carbon and investing in clean energy."

Kain also praised Sen. Susan Collins for her bill, co-sponsored with Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington state, which would reduce greenhouse gases through a so-called "cap and dividend" program that would give energy consumers periodic rebate payments achieved through the auction of pollution permits.