Reid To Introduce Energy Bill Before August Recess

Full-court press.

Two parts of the bill will be relatively noncontroversial: 1, reforming deep-drilling standards and raising the liability cap, and 2, some kind of nonsense about pushing more energy from solar and wind, which, you know, we've been doing since 1975, and simply doesn't work. I hate this crap but if Soccer Moms really want to pay more on electricity bills to subsidize nonworking technology, and they'll vote out anyone who doesn't agree to so waste their money, what can you do.

The third part...

The third, biggest and most contentious piece is a price on greenhouse gas emissions — a policy at the heart of the climate change debate. In a nod to how heavy a lift this would be, it’s likely that the carbon-cap piece will be limited to pollution from power plants and will not apply across the economy.

Despite that concession, it’s almost certain that two, if not three, of the five leaders meeting with Reid will object to including any kind of carbon cap in the final package. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) and Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) fear that a carbon price will hurt their home-state economies. And Bingaman, although a strong supporter of climate change efforts that cap carbon, has said many times in recent weeks that he does not believe the votes are there to pass a climate measure this year.

As Captain Awesome once said, your electricity prices will "necessarily skyrocket."

A Two-Fer: The Democrats need this, badly, because they need new taxes.

The carbon tax has great appeal to them because it's partially disguised (in that it will be your gas station and your power company extracting the tax from you) and because they can claim it's doing something besides taking money out of your pocket. See, by taking money out of your pocket, we're saving the world.

I think this is going to be a serious push, and not just an abortive pretend-bill to appease liberals.

These guys are growing a monster government and they need a monster tax base.

posted by Ace at 01:21 PM

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