Weekly Political Roundup–Time Keeps on Slippin’
Posted November 13, 2009 at 7:44 am 
Filed in: It’s been a relatively quiet week when it comes to the energy debate on Capitol Hill, and the question now is whether it may stay that way for the rest of the year—or longer.
Copenhagen is coming up fast, but now that the administration can point to legislation in both Houses of Congress—Waxman-Markey on the House side and Kerry-Boxer on the Senate side—some of the pressure is off. Realistically, of course, neither of these two bills is likely to bear much resemblance to any final energy or climate bill, but simply having legislation in play gives the Obama team some credibility and, more importantly, breathing room come the conference in December.
In the meantime, the legislative calendar is dwindling fast. House majority leader Steny Hoyer announced this week that there could be votes as late as December 22 if necessary. That sounds awfully late, but in reality, even if they stay in up until then, that leaves only 22 voting days left in the year (assuming a week off for Thanksgiving). The Senate will spend much of that time on health care. And there are still appropriations to finish; seven approps bills remain undone, four of which have to pass the Senate, including the time-consuming Labor-HHS one.
And today there is an added wrinkle to the energy odyssey. In what appears to be a classic Washington trial balloon, the administration is hinting in Politico that a focus next year on deficit reduction could put additional domestic spending on the back burner. The Politico article puts that in the context of cap and trade, with some Democrats hinting it could have to wait even longer, but if the administration is serious, we must also consider whether they may try to put off any major energy legislation in the name of controlling spending. Hopefully, this is not the case. We remain agnostic on cap and trade, but when it comes to reducing oil dependence, there is a clear fiscal argument to be made: U.S. oil dependence cost $577 billion in 2008 alone … and more than $5 trillion in total since 1970. We could spend a fraction of that to dramatically reduce our dependence on oil … and improve our economic and national security.
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