Climate bill may fall by the wayside

[NoName]

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0809/25802.html

Speculation that cap-and-trade is dead for '09 because the health-care plan is taking too much political capital. Probably a good political decision since although the health plan is somewhat unpopular I suspect c&t would be even more so once exposed to sunlight. Certainly good news for the economy.

With the fight over health care reform absorbing all the bandwidth on Capitol Hill, Democrats fear a major climate change bill may be left on the cutting-room floor this year.

A handful of key senators on climate change are almost guaranteed to be tied up well into the fall on health care. Democrats from the Midwest and the South are resistant to a cap-and-trade proposal. And few if any Republicans are jumping in to help push a global warming and energy initiative.

As a result, many Democrats fear the lack of political will and the congressional calendar will conspire to punt climate change into next year.

“The reality is [the health reform bill] is going to happen before cap and trade,” said House Agriculture Committee Chairman Rep. Collin Peterson, who’s been working with farm-state senators on the climate legislation. “Who knows if it will ever come out of the Senate?” [...]

But not every Democrat has so little confidence in his or her colleagues.

“Everything is hard, everything is slow,” said West Virginia Democratic Sen. John Rockefeller, chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee. “My answer to that is let’s do what we always did with [former Senate Majority Leader] George Mitchell and stay until Dec. 22. We did that every year he was majority leader.”


Democrats also have a diplomatic reason to make a push in the Senate: They’d like to pass legislation before the Copenhagen international climate negotiations in December. Unless the U.S. takes public steps to lower its greenhouse gas emissions, it will be hard to persuade China, India and other developing countries to make significant reductions, according to international climate change experts.

If Democrats fail to pass a bill this year, it won’t get any easier during an election cycle next year, when Democrats will be even more afraid of taking unpopular votes.

[Ron Weasley]

Kinda' like when the septic tank gets too full. Stuff just backs up 'til you clean it out.

[Baron Von Raschke]

Weird - it sure seemed like a life or death sitation when it got rushed through the house without anybody having a chance to read the bill. Kinda like the "stimulus" that was a life or death thing but hasn't been spent yet.

[Cheezy]

just F'n great. Now Canada is going to have to wait even longer because Harper can't pull his head out of his ass long enough to have an original thought.

[Cheezy]

Originally Posted by Baron Von Raschke

Weird - it sure seemed like a life or death sitation when it got rushed through the house without anybody having a chance to read the bill. Kinda like the "stimulus" that was a life or death thing but hasn't been spent yet.

but yet they are calling for even more stimulus spending. WTF? try spending the stimulus and see if it works. The whole things going to be over before 50% of the original stimulus is out the door and the rest of it is going to line the pockets of the political cronies.

[NoName]

In August:

Originally Posted by NoName

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0809/25802.html

Speculation that cap-and-trade is dead for '09 because the health-care plan is taking too much political capital. Probably a good political decision since although the health plan is somewhat unpopular I suspect c&t would be even more so once exposed to sunlight. Certainly good news for the economy.

In December:
Speculation that cap-and-trade is dead for '10 because the health-care plan is taking too much political capital. Probably a good political decision since although the health plan is somewhat unpopular I suspect c&t would be even more so once exposed to sunlight. Certainly good news for the economy.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1209/30984.html

Bruised by the health care debate and worried about what 2010 will bring, moderate Senate Democrats are urging the White House to give up now on any effort to pass a cap-and-trade bill next year.

“I am communicating that in every way I know how,” says Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), one of at least half a dozen Democrats who've told the White House or their own leaders that it's time to jettison the centerpiece of their party's plan to curb global warming.

The creation of an economy-wide market for greenhouse gas emissions is as the heart of the climate bill that cleared the House earlier this year. But with the health care fight still raging and the economy still hurting, moderate Democrats have little appetite for another sweeping initiative — especially another one likely to pass with little or no Republican support.

“We need to deal with the phenomena of global warming, but I think it’s very difficult in the kind of economic circumstances we have right now,” said Indiana Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh, who called passage of any economy-wide cap and trade “unlikely.”

[Wigmeister General]

THERE IS A GOD!!

[NoName]

The Administration apparently includes projected C&T revenue in its 2011 budget; not everybody thinks that is realistic, at least short term.
http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cf...y-000003287086

President Obama’s fiscal 2011 budget will project hundreds of billions of dollars in new federal revenue from a proposed comprehensive cap-and-trade climate law, according to Democratic aides — despite dimming prospects for enacting such legislation this year.


Including cap-and-trade revenue in the new budget underscores Obama’s commitment to press ahead with climate legislation, which passed in the House last year but stalled in the Senate. The president reiterated his insistence that Congress address global warming in his State of the Union address.[...]

But North Dakota Democrat Byron L. Dorgan , chairman of the Senate Energy-Water Appropriations Subcommittee, said any proposal to spend cap-and-trade revenue is probably dead on arrival.


“If there’s an anticipation of cap-and-trade revenues, I think that anticipation probably is not going to result in success because my best estimate is that we’re not likely to do a cap-and-trade bill this year,” Dorgan said.

[Arthur Kade]

And people say I'm delusional.

[Omikron]

I hope Obama's feeling lucky on this. Punk.