Republicans have been complaining about taxes, the economy and jobs day and night, but strangely light bulbs has become a hot issue for them instead of job creation.

House lawmakers Tuesday stymied an initial effort by Republicans to put an end to infamous light bulb efficiency standards.

The bill from Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) to repeal part of a 2007 energy law requiring traditional incandescent light bulbs to be 30 percent more energy efficient beginning in 2012 failed to get the necessary two-thirds support needed for approval under expedited rules. A majority of members — 233 — supported the repeal, including five Democrats. Ten Republicans joined 183 Democrats opposing the measure.House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi personally whipped Democratic Caucus members to vote against the bill, a Democratic aide told POLITICO.---

The Energy Department has argued the light bulb efficiency standards would save $6 billion annually.

“It really just boils down to we’re helping the American people save money,” Energy Secretary Steven Chu said on a conference call with reporters late last week.

Chu said critics are wrong in saying the standards would ban all incandescent light bulbs, adding that the “look and feel” of newer, more efficient bulbs would be “exactly the same. It’s just cheaper to operate.”

“These standards are not taking choices away,” he added.

Barton said before the vote he wasn’t worried about any political fallout for the Republicans.

Republican priorities are not jobs, but light bulbs. Seriously? This is what they are wasting our time with, after it was already passed in 2007?

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?

[Ed. note: Please welcome to C&L our old friend and erstwhile congressional candidate from Washington's 8th District, Darcy Burner. Darcy's now heading up Progressive Congress, and we hope to have her contribute posts as often as she's willing and able. -- DN]

We talk a lot about wanting representatives who will display courage and conviction. But the real test of that isn’t what they do when it’s easy – it’s what they do when it’s hard.

**

When I was running for Congress, my son Henry would take every opportunity he could to talk about climate change. He talked to me, he talked to Democrats at legislative district meetings, he grabbed the microphone if he saw TV cameras. He used my webcam two years ago to cut this video:

Today the U.S. House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on the Waxman-Markey energy bill, the most significant climate change legislation in history. It establishes a cap-and-trade regulatory system designed to decrease the amount of carbon dioxide we release into the atmosphere over the next several years.

I want to help principled progressives who vote their conscience when it's politically costly understand that we have their backs.

Continue reading »

This is what passes for smart legislation....help us all...

Paddy @CliffSchecter:

Backers of a 35 mile-per-gallon fuel economy standard by 2020 said today they had reached a tentative deal that they believe could win passage in the Senate, over the likely objections of the auto industry and Michigan's senators.

The larger energy bill survived a test today when 61 Democrats and Republicans approved a procedural vote that could have killed the bill. Michigan Sens. Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow broke with other Democrats and voted against the bill.

35 MPG by 2020? Hell, you and I could probably put our heads together and figure out how to accomplish that.

Right-Wing House Twists Arms: Shame!

Brad Blog: Republicans House members DeLay, Barton, Hastert and Blunt held the vote open on a controversial energy bill until they were able twist enough arms for the bill to pass...read on

Think Progress :The House leadership held the five-minute vote open for almost 50 minutes until they could convince three lawmakers-The bill passed 212-210. As the vote concluded, opponents of the bill chanted in unity: “Shame, Shame, Shame!”

Big Oil = $Billions----Amtrak = $0 The Peach