GOP Takes Clean Energy Bill Obstructionism To Yet Another Level
From NOW on PBS--Power Struggle. More available here.
This is what I hate having to explain to my relatives and friends abroad in Europe about politics in the US. We know that global warming is a fact. We know that our actions, if they didn't cause global warming, definitely exacerbate it. We know that we must reduce our dependency on oil, for both ecological and political/strategic reasons. And yet, what we are able to do is hampered so predictably by the Republican party:
Here we go again. James Inhofe, the most prominent climate change denier in the United States Senate, has concocted a new and innovative strategy to thwart the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act. To wit, he and his Republican colleagues on the Environment and Public Works Committee have worked up a plan to simply not show up for next week’s markup:
But Boxer cannot hold the markup unless at least two Republicans show up, and EPW ranking member James Inhofe (R-Okla.) signaled that he has unanimous support among the panel’s minority members to boycott the session until they get more data on the legislation from U.S. EPA and the Congressional Budget Office.
Inhofe said he will wait for Boxer to file an official notice of the markup — expected today — before responding with his own declaration of the GOP’s markup strategy.
“As soon as we find out what her announcement is and what she wants to do, we’ll have our response,” Inhofe told E&E last night. “We’ll have our unanimous expression ready.”
Sadly, this is a continuation of the GOP’s longstanding strategy of delaying clean energy legislation:
- As Chairman Markey shepherded his American Clean Energy and Security Act through the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Republicans employed multiple parliamentary tricks to — as Politico put it — “nitpick the bill into legislative oblivion.” Brian Beutler called these nefarious stall tactics, and noted that Democrats responded by hiring a speed reader.
- Last year during the debate over the Climate Security Act, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell demanded that the entire 491 page bill be read on the floor of the United States Senate. A strategy memo was leaked at the time detailing the Republican strategy for delaying the bill as much as humanly possible.
While this Republican obstructionism is not necessarily surprising, it is especially egregious this time. Here are a few things about this episode that struck me:
1. Despite the fact that Senator Inhofe has been working to orchestrate this obstruction for a week now, Republicans are pretending the effort is being led by the two moderate Republicans on the committee. Politico handled the stenography.
The Politco, acting as a mouthpiece for the Republican Party? Say it isn't so!
Can you imagine how much further we'd get in this country if we didn't have so many idiots in office?
Last I heard jim imohefe and the gop in general lack wit.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Is it so easy for the republicans to attack and stop democrat's policies,,, now that they are the ??minority??
But, when democrat were the minority their cried and say they had their hands tied..
Are the elected democrats really democrats ,, or are they not as smart as the republicans..
None
if only the Democratic Party had done this during Bush's 8 years?
The Dems wouldn't dare oppose the GOP minority. The Democratic Leadership is under the direct control of the GOP.
We need a Carbon Tax. Cap and Trade will only bring about more market shenanigans and will NOT lower emissions appreciably.
There is no such thing as clean coal. Carbon capture is risky at best and causes us to continue on full speed with fossil fuels.
The current legislation is not nearly tough enough. It is far too Corporate friendly.
We need radical measures before the Capitalists completely destroy the planet.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
Any politician that grows comfortable on the money they get through lobbyists, is compromised. They will do the bidding of the money suppliers... and it is NOT the voting public.
By the way, I can't seem to get an answer to this question: Since we are, in fact, carbon-based organisms, why is so much fear being peddled about carbon? It just doesn't make sense to me.
"Courtesy is owed. Respect is earned. Love is given." --Unknown author, found in Guide to Texas Etiquette by Kinky Friedman
Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a product of all combustion. We obtain over 80% of our electricity from the combustion of mostly coal but some natural gas.
We obtain nearly 100% of our transport energy from petroleum.
Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is a greenhouse gas. It is not the only one but it is the main one.
We are pumping over 800 tons a second into the atmosphere.
An article on the carbon counter clock in NYC is here
There are number of people who say that 350 parts per million of CO2 is the danger level for the earth's climate. We are already nearing 390 parts per million.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
but we still can drown, can't we?
RU Serious? I won't dignify such a silly question with an answer.
As to this slightly less silly question (though a rhetorical one):
"Can you imagine how much further we'd get in this country if we didn't have so many idiots in office?"
These idiots were elected by idiots, and they're all American idiots, a unique breed. The day we start attracting better teachers by actually paying them a decent wage is the day we start pulling out of the morass of idiocy we're drowning in.
Yes there are a lot of good, dedicated teachers out there, but they remain outnumbered by far by those who teach because they couldn't "do."
I like the desert as well. It would be nice to have a world where we could all have 65 acres around us. That is long gone. To avoid compounding the damage we have done to the atmosphere, we need to pull up some plants near these people's country home, and spoil their view.
The alternative is famine, and we will not avoid that for millions in any event.
Forty years ago the Club Of Rome concluded there were two possible scenarios for the 21st century:
A) Control population growth and dramatically reduce industrial output - resulting in a sustainable global population of perhaps 10 billion by the middle of the 21st century
OR
B) Continue to allow the population to grow and continue the growth of industrial output - resulting in a massive die-off from a peak of 9 or 10 billion people to about 3 billion by the end of the 21st century.
The Republicans CLEARLY favor option B.
When will government of the people, by the politicians, for the corporations perish from this Earth?
Not soon enough!
It also fits nicely with their healthcare strategy of "please die soon" as well.
I hope the GOP/AKA the party of freaks and kooks has an early demise before they take all of humanity down with them.
"We will find fulfillment not in the goods that we have, but in the good we can do for each other."
Robert F. Kennedy
The Pres. should just take the legislation that Inhofe objects to so abjectly and implement it by executive order. AND, send jimmy a little note attached to the EO - Hey, Jim...BITE ME.
If we didn't have idiots in office, this wouldn't be America. This nation was founded by the Puritans, the original "If I can't have my way, I won't play," Americans.
images of which will be provided for your delight on The Nature Channel at 9 PM tonight.
Until then, stay cheerful.
Pay your bills on time.
Good night!
There are almost 7 billion people in the planet.
Of that there are something like 300 million Americans.
Only 20 - 28% of those are willfully ignorant 'teabag' Conservative Republicans. (let's say 25%).
That's 12 million Inhofe's that refuse to believe their own eyes.
So 12 Million arrogant 'Conservatives' are eager to condemn their own children and grandchildren to a slow death by global warming and the world-wide catastrophes that will follow.
This tiny minority are the ones that have the bumper stickers on their Class A RVs:
"I am spending my children's inheritance!"
+ + + + + + + + + + +
Indeed the American Conservative's sociopathic hatred for their own offspring is part of, and results in their hatred for all life on earth.
My wife's family are all crazy literal-bible 'christians' (that espouse the opposite of everything Jesus actually said and did). Indeed one of her uncle's once said that we are in the end-times and it's obvious that Jesus is taking too long, that we should nuke the Soviets to get Him here sooner.
Conservatives are the ones that worship death, they spend their days wishing for the end of the world, they demand their government officials actively bring about the end of the world.
And of course the Democratic Leadership has shown by their (lack of) actions since Saint Ronaldus Maximus was emperor that they will never, ever stand in the Conservative's way toward total destruction of America and the world.
25% of 300 million is 75 million teabagger 'Thugs. How I wish it were only 12 million. Or zero.
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
you're right. I did bad math...
75 million 'conservatives' are actively destroying the world for the other 7 billion.
Conservatives are selfish bastards.
And they call us 'the party of death'?!
I think solar electric farms (like the one proposed in the video) have their place in a "green" energy solution, but I think the real emphasis should be made on retro-fitting every urban and suburban building with solar panels (and perhaps wind turbines) and capturing solar energy locally.
Every building would also be outfitted to pump excess electricity back into the grid. The electric meter could run in reverse and potentially at the end of the month the electric company would owe the consumer for the excess electricity that "consumer" generated.
Part of this plan requires that every state mandate the power companies operating within their borders pay consumers and businesses for any excess pumped back into the grid.
States - and the federal govt - should offer subsidies and tax credits for companies and homeowners who install solar electric panels.
THIS is a much more important approach than the solar farm discussed in the video. I think solar farms should also be part of the solution, but smaller than proposed in the video, and more of them distributed over a wider area.
When will government of the people, by the politicians, for the corporations perish from this Earth?
Not soon enough!
As my wife always has said, every new home in Las Vegas should have solar panels on the roof.
granting REAL tax breaks to homeowners to weatherize and install solar heaters should have been one of the first initiatives Obama should have undertaken. Not only would it save energy, but it would supply much-needed work to plumbers, electriciams and other tradespeople.
I just don't understand it.
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
You would have to call Joe the plumber. Oh wait!
who really cares about plumbers or electricians? What did plumbers or electricians ever do for Congress? Do they have a lobby?
They have unions. And we all know what the Villagers think of unions.
If Inhofe and the rest don't show up....
MAKE SURE IT'S TELEVISED.
MAKE SURE THERE'S A RECORD OF IT.
MAKE SURE THAT EVERY VOTER SEES IT.
MORE INSTANT MIDTERM ADVERTISING, COURTESY OF THE PARTY OF STUPID.
experimental balloon is scheduled to go missing that day...
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
The Democratic Leadership is all about capitulation to the GOP minority.
The Dems will NEVER embarrass the GOP.
Reid should have been forcing the GOP to actually filibuster, rather than simply quietly hide cloture votes.
We should have one hour of filibuster on CSPAN2 for every single item the GOP is obstructing.
But again, that'll never happen because the Dems are NOT an opposition party, they are part of the GOP, not outside it.
this obstructionism solely on the Republicans. There are about twenty-five states that are engaged in coal mining to one degree or other and jobs are a little hard to come by just now. You can expect some backroom resistance on the Democratic side as well. There are a lot of vested interests that will oppose any significant reduction in emissions.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
flooding the world. Burning fossil fuel also pollutes the air and water. It also gets us into resource wars like the Iraq war. Most of the problems with renewable energy is technical which will be solved in the next few decades. Right now wind energy is nearly as cheap as coal. It will get even cheaper. Solar is getting cheaper.
When are the Dems going to stand up for something. When the Republicans were in control they excluded Dems from meetings and committees saying that they did not care what they wanted. It is time for the Dems to do something. Change the rules. Use the nuclear option.
And when did the Republicans actually care about people? They care only about rich people. These are the same Republicans that allowed companies dump toxic waste into our rivers and lakes.
The Democrats are a random jumble of corrupt politicians.
The Republicans (many of them, at least) are not only corrupt politicians, but authoritarian tribalists with loyalty to the Republican Tribe. So while Democrats are distracted by competing short-term political considerations (as well as OCCASIONAL public interest concerns), Republicans are (as you can tell by their rhetorical and behavioral lockstep synchronicity) primarily motivated by tribal authority.
That's why Reagan has an 11th Commandment and Clinton doesn't. It's why Republicans simultaneously mock liberals by claiming they worship Obama while they secretly worship "Ronaldus Magnus".
It is impossible to ever get the same level of discipline and obedience from non-authoritarians as you will reliably get from authoritarians. We're fucked as a nation if we don't realize this and deal with it accordingly.
You don't communicate with an autistic by shouting louder or hitting them. They're just wired differently and there's nothing you can do about it. Similarly, we do ourselves no favors if we pretend that hypertribalists who prefer "truthiness" to facts are open to political arguments based on logic or even national concerns.
A large portion of the Republican base has tribal loyalty to the Republican Party. We can't argue them out of it. It's their cult!
It's like Republicans *want* us to get so frustrated that one of us does something stupid and violent... I mean, it wouldn't work, because they have more guns than we do, and they keep bloviating about how they're "just waiting fer some lib'ral to start something... so we can FINISH it!" Like these assholes didn't start it 30 years ago...
When I read about how dysfunctional the Republicans have successfully made our government in so many ways, it is absolutely astonishing. They really have hollowed out our government and turned it into nothing but a cash cow for the wealthy and politically connected... even as they spew faux-populist slogans...
Hypertribalism authoritarian scumbags have taken over the nation. Enjoy it, folks!
All I can say is that I am from southern Oklahoma, and I apologize for this SOB.
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