Political Roundup
Posted July 23, 2010 at 2:07 pm 
Filed in: After months of waiting, this Thursday, Washington finally received reports of the energy plan that Senator Harry Reid would bring to the floor of the US Senate. With the far left still clamoring for a “Carbon Cap” and the far right obstinately opposing any “Carbon Tax,” Senator Reid was left in a tough position – picking and choosing parts of an energy package that would appease both sides. According to Friday’s E&E, those plans were the following, “to ‘Hold BP accountable’ for costs from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill; invest in natural gas-powered trucks; enact “Home Star” programs to encourage the use of energy-efficient insulation, water heaters and heating systems; and add funding to the Land and Water Conservation Fund.”
Unfortunately, these pieces, even when combined, do not seem to have any appreciable impact in terms of reducing our foreign oil dependence, reducing CO2 emissions, or sparking job growth from a new green sector.
Immediately following Reid’s announcements, critics abounded. Friday’s E&E reports, “The utility industry spent the past three-and-a-half years lobbying for an economywide climate policy and for now has nothing to show for it.” In the same article, American Wind Energy Association CEO Denise Bode states, “A refusal to pass an RES is an attack on every American worker and consumer. Not passing an RES endangers at least 360,000 jobs: 85,000 currently employed in the wind industry and the potential 274,000 additional jobs created by an RES.”
The NY Times sees the White House as a major culprit for the outcome, “Despite the opportunity offered by the oil spill to press for a bold energy policy, the president essentially disappeared. What has passed for advocacy by the White House in recent days has consisted largely of one op-ed article by the energy adviser, Carol Browner, and daily assurances from the press secretary, Robert Gibbs, that the White House was ‘working behind the scenes.’”
In Friday’s Politico, Sherrod Brown implicates the right, “the Republicans don’t want to cooperate on anything. On any of these major issues they vote no, and we’ve got to get some Republican votes because we don’t have unanimity in our caucus. So we’re still hoping they decide they want to govern instead of scoring political points.”
If the Washington blame game has already started, we ask, what’s next?
Politico continues, “Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), Kerry’s partner on the climate proposal, said he had no problem with Reid delaying debate on greenhouse gas caps. ‘If that’s the truth, it keeps the process open for negotiating a broader utilities-only bill in September.’” However, in the same article, Senator Byron Dorgan states, “I don’t think there are going to be two energy packages on the floor this year. Whatever comes to the floor on energy is going to be the package we’re going to consider.”
If this bill is the year’s only package, we think there may be a possible alternate path. Without the official release of the legislation, could it be changed before it hits the floor? As we have mentioned throughout this blog, there is a bipartisan solution, it already has Republican votes, and it appreciably reduces our dependence on foreign oil. Wednesday’s markup of S. 3495 saw a 19-4 bipartisan vote for electrification legislation. If Senator Reid were to add this to his bill, it could reverse several of the complaints mentioned above.
So, with that in mind, until the final bill is on the floor, we’ll hold out hope that Washington will stop the blame game and work to pass something substantial and widely supported.
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