Senator Jeff Bingaman, Closet Climate Peacock?

by RLMiller

The climate peacocks are a group of Senators who preen, strut, and profess great concern about the climate.  "Like "deficit peacocks" who pretend to be hawkish on budgets but refuse any real solution, these "climate peacocks" claim to care about science, energy reform, and the environment, but have yet to find solutions to the threat of climate change." They're so concerned that they dare not let the Environmental Protection Agency regulate carbon, because Congress has to do the job.  And they're so concerned that a carbon regulation bill won't be fair to their states that Congress had better not regulate carbon.  

Senator Jeff Bingaman doesn't preen or strut.  He's supposed to be a slow, careful, and methodical pragmatist.  However, the energy bill he's been crafting has all the tailfeathers of a climate peacock.  Leaked draft below the fold.

continued at Daily Kos....

Weekend at Bernie's: Reading Tea Leaves on an Ex-Climate Bill

by RLMiller

After the euphoria of a couple of weeks ago, in which Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced a high-risk "Go Big or Go Home" strategy of attaching a climate bill to a politically popular spill bill (e.g., S.3516), sober reality set in as the Senators realized they didn't have 60 votes for any climate bill to attach to the spill bill. Whoops.

Democratic Senators on recess: They're still bickering, they're still dithering about getting to 60 votes, they're running out of time, and they're preparing to go medium rather than go big.  One major player is  missing in action, and another has his own personal enthusiasm gap.  And it's becoming increasingly likely that whatever will be put forth can't be labeled a climate bill. "The climate debate is like Weekend at Bernie's: the enviros are walking around like this thing is still alive, but we can all see it’s dead," says a lobbyist.

continued at Daily Kos....

ACELA to Nowhere: Unclean Energy-Only Bill Jumps the Tracks

by RLMiller

Rumors have the Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) abandoning the Kerry-Yournamehere-Lieberman climate bill in favor of a clean energy-only bill.  Moderate Democrats, led by Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), believe the best foundation is the American Clean Energy and Leadership Act, S. 1462, a bill that passed the Energy & Natural Resources Committee last summer on a bipartisan vote.

By now, it's become gospel truth that environmentalists cringe at ACELA.  But why?  Is the bill that bad?

Actually, yes.  Short summary (2 pg pdf) of bill here; analysis below the fold.

continued at Daily Kos....