On Sept. 22, in a speech to 100 world leaders gathered at the United Nations to discuss climate change, President Barack Obama declared the U.S. “determined to act.”

But at the same time, word began to circulate on Capitol Hill that the Senate might be equally determined not to vote on the climate bill any time soon.

“We are going to have a busy, busy time the rest of this year,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. “We still have next year to complete things, if we have to.”

The bill is bogged down in part because of contentious and extended negotiations over health care. But to a greater degree, it is stalled because it is so flawed.

Indeed, the House bill is so bad that even those who supported it did so reluctantly. During the House debate, my friend Denis Hayes, president of the Bullitt Foundation, board chairman of the International Earth Day Network and veteran of many a legislative battle wrote a column that offered four strong reasons to reject the bill and then concluded, “If I were in Congress, I would hold my nose and vote for the Waxman-Markey bill.”

Happily, a new climate bill drafted by Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., may soon be introduced that wouldn’t require us to hold our noses at all. Indeed, it could change both the nature of the debate and its outcome.

Cantwell brings impressive credentials to the climate issue. Elected in 2000, she chairs the Senate Democrats 20/20 Energy Independence campaign and co-chairs the Apollo Alliance. Among her legislative achievements are the passage of a bill to prevent energy-market manipulation and the successfully blocking of an attempt by GOP Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens to allow drilling on the Arctic National wildlife refuge.

In its introductory text, Cantwell’s Carbon Limits and Energy for America’s Renewal (CLEAR) Act of 2009 promises “simplicity, transparency and equity.” It delivers on all counts.

The bill is blessedly brief, 32 pages compared to the mammoth 1,427 pages in the Waxman-Markey bill (a number that will only grow in the Senate). You can actually sit down and read CLEAR in one sitting and understand how its pieces fit together.