A Lame Excuse for Lame-Duck Legislation

by A Siegel

The U.S. Senate looks on track to take one measure in the post-election, lame-duck Congressional session to address the most serious challenges of our oil addiction and our heavy carbon footprint. This will be, as I understand it, an effort to fast track a piece of legislation introduced by Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid: S. 3815: Promoting Natural Gas and Electric Vehicles Act of 2010.

Let us be clear, the idea that the Senate (and Congress) might actually fast-track something to deal with America's addiction to oil is -- on the face of it -- a good thing.  Even if we didn't face the looming prospects of future economic shocks and security risks due to Peak Oil colliding with increasing demand, that a significant portion of America's trade deficit is going to put oil in our McSUVs (that we drive to Wal-Mart to buy Chinese-made products) is something that should be on the top of Congress' agenda for addressing with serious and meaningful legislation.

However, the idea that that will be throwing more money into subsidizing fossil-foolish addictions is a sorry excuse for responsible legislating.

continued at Daily Kos....

Natural Gas Vehicles: an 'ethanol'-like boondoggle?

by A Siegel

Despite all the green washing out there (and there is lots of it, lets be clear), corn-based ethanol is far from a panacea in terms of reducing America's dependence on imported oil, dependency on fossil fuels, reducing greenhouse gases and representing a good investment for the taxpayer.  While supporting corn ethanol is, it seems, great politics to get through the Iowa primary, independent study after independent study shows that it is not a good deal for the taxpayer, the economy, and the environment.  The absolute 'best' case, from honest analysis, is that this is a very costly and inefficient path for very marginal reductions in fossil-foolish dependencies and minimal greenhouse-gas emission reductions. Other analysts come out with the conclusion that we actually lose ground in GHG emissions in returns for the $billions being pumped into corn ethanol.

Right now, we seem to be watching (in slow motion?) a headlong rush into another "ethanol"-like boondoggle driven, in no small part, by the $70 million or so that T Boone Pickens has put behind promotion of The Pickens' Plan.

continued at Daily Kos...

Harry Reid: "Coal makes us sick!"

by A Siegel

Two years ago, Harry Reid stared into Faux and Balanced cameras square on and spoke truth:

Coal makes us sick ...

continued at Daily Kos...

Breaking: Harry Reid's High Stakes Climate Gamble

by RLMiller

First, 57 Democratic Senators walked out of a caucus meeting today sounding like they'd been to a summer blockbuster movie instead.  The meeting was thrilling and inspirational.  Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid:

"A number of senators said this was the best caucus they've ever attended," Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) said at a press conference after the meeting. "It was really very, very powerful. It was inspirational, quite frankly."

And within a few hours, we learn why Democratic Senators sound like 57 cats who hijacked the cream truck: Reid is making a high-stakes gamble on a climate bill.  Not a clean energy bill, but a climate bill to cap greenhouse gases.  Details below the fold.

continued at Daily Kos....