Energy policy on the ObamaCare model
President Obama has decided that the Gulf oil spill means we need to change the way we power our entire country, not just the way we regualte offshore drilling. Politico reports today that the next three weeks will be crucial to that effort, with the ball in the court of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid:
The options will break down into three core elements, and the question will be how the leaders choose to combine them.
The first and easiest piece is a Gulf-spill response measure to reform offshore drilling and raise disaster liabilities on oil companies. “That one’s must-pass,” said Scott Segal, an energy lobbyist at Bracewell & Giuliani, echoing the sentiments of congressional staff members on both sides of the aisle.
The second element is a clean-energy bill that would require a boost in renewable electricity produced by sources such as wind and solar. A version of this bill, sponsored by Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), was passed by the panel last year with bipartisan support and is widely viewed as the most palatable clean-energy compromise now in the Senate.
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.
The article suggests that Bingaman and other Democrats believe they don’t have the votes for cap and trade, and that a package with the first two pieces is more likely. This scenario has environmentalists riled up, not just because of the dim prospects for cap and trade, but because the target for a renewable-energy mandate may end up at 15 percent of all the nation’s power — rather than the 20 percent requirement in a bill the House passed last year, or the 25 percent that Obama advocated while campaigning.
Is it just me, or is this the health debate, part deux?
Cap and trade, like the public option, is a long-held goal on the left (well, in cap and trade’s case, long is relative to the age of the global warming debate) that looks to be shot down because too many legislators know that they’d lose their jobs if they passed it.
So, we move on to the left’s next-best thing in the debate, mandating renewable energy; think mandating certain coverage aspects in health care. With the most drastic option out of the way, this is where the left and right will fight it out.
The left will push for higher percentages than are feasible, in terms of economics and probably logistics as well (the best areas for solar and wind generation are not necessarily where the demand for power is greatest). Note in the Politico article that the environmentalists object to energy efficiency being part of the renewable requirement. Nothing will ever be enough for them, because they object far more to our way of life than our means of power generation.
The right will argue that we can’t afford what Democrats are proposing, that the Western European nations that have tried such a renewables push before us have been slowly backing away from those policies, and that forcing electricity rates to jump (even if they wouldn’t quite “skyrocket” as Obama admitted would happen with cap and trade) is an especially terrible idea amid a sluggish recovery.
The left will proceed to brand Republicans and conservatives as spiteful planet haters.
The right will suggest that Congress respond to the oil spill by simply passing a bill that deals with drilling regulations, and continue to work on the broader energy question, since electricity generation itself has nothing to do with the energy needs that petroleum fills. The left will sneer at that, because it knows that the broader policy question will go nowhere on its own merits. (Come to think of it, this mirrors the immigration debate as well.)
The difference, if it comes, may be whether Obama, Reid and Speaker Nancy Pelosi still have the juice to make vulnerable Democrats take the poison. Or whether they can contort enough parliamentary procedures to get what they want without a proper vote.
And at the end of the day, if they can pull it through, Democrats will have enraged conservatives and peeved moderates for a legislative “achievement” that doesn’t even satisfy their most liberal supporters.
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
117 comments Add your comment
Grand Forks
July 12th, 2010
10:44 pm
“- The proof is on Wooten’s “Believe Obama or Lying Eyes” forum –
Nobody else but you responds to my posts there lately.”
Dew, I haven’t been on that blog in a while. Just checked and it looks like someone is messing with you. But anyway, glad you’re here.
Grand Forks
July 12th, 2010
10:47 pm
No More Progressives!
ScamVet is filled his depends when he found out I was banned from Bookman’s blog. He and other left wingers get away with calling people names but when the tide turns he goes running to his daddy and cries like a little kid who got beat up on the playground. Sure he talks a big game, but go after him and he folds fast.
DEWSTARPATH
July 13th, 2010
1:58 am
“Dew, I haven’t been on that blog in a while. Just checked and it looks like someone is messing with you. But anyway, glad you’re here.”
- I’ll survive someone “messing with me” on a blog. But thanks for
the welcome mat, Grand Forks.
ODDOWL
July 13th, 2010
2:25 am
JIm Crow is alive and well in South Carolina… Jim “Crow” DeMint is gallivanting around the State talking up succession and civil war. There is one Man in S.C. who can eradicate Jim Crow and bring S.C. back into the family of States. That Man’s name is Al Greene, Democrat for Senator. Vote Al Greene and force Jim DeMint to eat waterloo Crow.
No More Progressives!
July 13th, 2010
7:30 am
Grand Forks
July 12th, 2010
10:47 pm
Sure he talks a big game, but go after him and he folds fast.
I’ve noticed the same. He and his minions are a tough bunch when it’s 25 to 1; they can’t carry any water without calling names.
No More Progressives!
July 13th, 2010
7:32 am
That Man’s name is Al Greene, Democrat for Senator.
The Senate (and the House) are already filled with buffoons, reprobates and tax cheats. Why do we need another?
about time
July 13th, 2010
7:40 am
Has anyone seen the movie Gasland which is currently playing on HBO? Before you start putting down Obamas energy plans, take a look at what Dick Cheney, George Bush and our friends at Haliburton have done.
Grand Forks
July 13th, 2010
9:08 am
“Sure he talks a big game, but go after him and he folds fast.’
I did and he went and cried to Jay.
“He and his minions are a tough bunch when it’s 25 to 1; they can’t carry any water without calling names.”
Yep, and like I said, I can handle any amount of left wing attacks against me. The problem comes when they go and cry to mommy about it.
Grand Forks
July 13th, 2010
9:08 am
“I’ll survive someone “messing with me” on a blog. But thanks for
the welcome mat, Grand Forks.”
No problem, Dew.
nelsonhoward
July 13th, 2010
9:15 am
Wind power is an endlessly renewable source of clean energy. Take one commercial grade wind turbine. It costs 3.5 million to build and once online, produces 2 megawatts of energy per year. the 2 megawattsofenergy genrates 3.5 million dollars the first year. That is a 100% return on investment. That is as good as it gets. It also generates considerable tax revenue used that can be used to operate municipalities and school systems. It just gets better and better.
The “Nacelle” the worlds largest wind turbine can generate enough energy to provide all the energy needs for 750,000 homes. Admittedly, it has a large foot print, needing 100 acres for construction.
The only real draw back to wind power is that some people find wind turbines aesthetically displeasing. They can hold up the building of turbines with lawsuits, however with a planet rapidly reaching the tipping point with the blanket of CO2 gases covering the earth and holding the heat in, these people are going to lose.
Clemson U. has already begun work on prototypes and research with an 88 million dollar grant from the government[U.S.]
I need not say more by bringing the oil spill in the Gulf as an example of an evironmental disaster of monumental proportions. Endlessly renewable clean energy is the future.
Grand Forks
July 13th, 2010
9:26 am
More bad news for the Obama cult followers.
Confidence in Obama reaches new low, Washington Post-ABC News poll finds
Public confidence in President Obama has hit a new low, according to the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll. Four months before midterm elections that will define the second half of his term, nearly six in 10 voters say they lack faith in the president to make the right decisions for the country, and a clear majority once again disapproves of how he is dealing with the economy.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/12/AR2010071205453_pf.html
curious observer
July 13th, 2010
9:36 am
Gerald West,
“It’s easy to ridicule proposals for reducing the energy dependence of the US. What are the alternatives? What would you propose, Kyle? The Republican policy was “Drill, Baby, Drill!” Why don’t we hear that anymore? It was a delusion anyhow: there’s no way the US can drill its way to energy independence, or extract enough additional oil to lower the price of gasoline at the pump.”
There are geologists who believe the US has more oil than the rest of the world combined. No, the US will not drill away from foreign dependence but not due to a shortage of oil. The environmental (mental being the significant portion) movement has blocked the construction of refineries for at least 30 years. The general belief is that the storms in the Gulf each year somehow reduce our imports but the fact is the refineries run at capacity 24/7 and storms interrupt production and the resulting shortfall drives prices.
The US has the oil but the Liberals behind the environMENTAL movement have a goal of destroying capitalism and the movement is nothing but a tool to achieve socialism. There was a recent Wall Street Journal Article detailing the plan to establish a Board of Trade for carbon credits. The software to run the Board is in place and owned by the usual suspects; Al Gore, Franklin Raines, George Soros, William Ayers, Bill Clinton, David Rockefeller, Goldman Sachs et al.
The rank and file environmental workers have been duped into a movement designed to enrich those named previously. Follow the money. Al Gore would make $15 Billion the first year but so what if the average energy bill for a middle class household rises by 2 to 10 fold? Obama and his buddies will be even richer. The Progressive Movement is a scam but Amvet and the rest of the Liberal Loons here and across the US are too blind or unwilling to see the facts.
Halftrack
July 13th, 2010
10:32 am
Cap & Trade is really Cap & TAX. Where have the voices of the environmentalist been on the damages of the oil spill by BP. Global warming is the biggest hoax of the century. Carbon Dioxide is the stuff we breathe out every day. Plants use this to make oxygen for us to breathe & live and the plants convert it for their own food. The Government would be better off to offer incentives with a monetary award for new inventions, etc. to cut down on oil usage and create new devices for energy. We just need to motivate our inventors and quit trying to tax everyone to death & control their lives.
No More Progressives!
July 13th, 2010
11:34 am
A 500 megawatt coal plant produces 3.5 billion kilowatt-hours per year, enough to power a city of about 140,000 people. It burns 1,430,000 tons of coal, uses 2.2 billion gallons of water and 146,000 tons of limestone.
http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy/coalvswind/brief_coal.html
How much coal does the US have?
What happens to the wind turbine when the wind stops blowing, or blows too hard?
No More Progressives!
July 14th, 2010
8:16 am
curious observer
July 13th, 2010
9:36 am
There are geologists who believe the US has more oil than the rest of the world combined.
Why, oh why aren’t we drilling in the Bakken find?
Can someone please tell me?
Buckagon
July 14th, 2010
10:10 pm
CJ,
The socialist progressive rant about lost jobs, lost wages, combatting global warming, saving the planet, purifying the environment and lost lives is always rhetorical overreach at best–a lie at worst. Your faith in the “fifth independent investigation” is entirely unwarranted. It’s an entirely blind item to you. (I am an environmental engineer, and it’s not to me.)
The climate hoax works just like this. You want a diamond ring. You look around, and everyone tells you I have the best one–if you like, a trusted professor from the fifth independent investigation tells you this. Though you know nothing about diamonds, you come to me, I schmooze you, ask you all kinds of great questions, make you feel good and sell you the rock. In the end, I took thousands of dollars from you for cut glass. Because you have NO WAY of verifying this for yourself, you have no way of knowing that I ripped you off. (What’s fascinating to me is the bald prejudice against transparent people like Palin or Reagan, yet liberals seem to think that THEIR scientists that they can’t understand are completely infallible.)
What is clear is that the right is the only place where such real debates take place and the only side that recognizes the need for a clean environment with economic production. Tales of magical Obama-green jobs are fantasy, never will be true.
The simple fact is that increasing cost on energy will increase cost on everything DRAMATICALLY. And green jobs–were they available–will require massive technical retraining. As has happened in many other countries, the weakness of the command economy will once again result in economic malaise if not abject misery.
Too bad the sea-level hasn’t gone down on Obama’s watch either.
If you are indeed scientifically literate, I’d be happy to challenge you on the basic technical stuff. Let me know. The climate cabal is basing their models and their historical assumptions on very flimsy stuff. Overall, the argument is so thin, that only a politician ignorant of science (Gore) would dare be the spokesman for the movement.
No More Progressives!
July 16th, 2010
6:52 am
Buckagon
July 14th, 2010
10:10 pm
It’s an entirely blind item to you. (I am an environmental engineer, and it’s not to me.)
I spent 25 years in the hazardous waste treatment and disposal industry. I cannot speak with much authority on the Clean Air Act, yet I have a working understanding of it. It never ceases to amaze me the nummnutz that come here & pontificate about “environmental issues” and don’t have the slightest clue what they’re talking about.
Politicians in training, I suppose.