Working furiously to try to strike a deal on broad energy legislation, Congressional negotiators on Monday killed two major provisions aimed at curbing consumption of traditional fossil fuels like oil, natural gas and coal.Lots of other pro-conservation amendments had already been cut in the Senate, but these compromise measures were the last hope of requiring any sort of rationality from U.S. energy policy -- apparently the House wants them cut because GOP legislators don't want to anger their friends in the oil industry outrage over "mandatory carpooling" to endanger their biennial re-elections. Inspiring stuff.
House members rejected an effort to incorporate a plan passed by the Senate to require utilities to use more renewable energy like wind and solar power to generate electricity. They also defeated a bid to direct the president to find ways to cut the nation's appetite for oil by one million barrels a day.
"It's a bad bill," [Rep. Henry A. Waxman] said. "It wastes taxpayers' money. It doesn't make us any more energy self-sufficient. We're still going to have increased demand for importing oil from the Middle East."Well, we never have any trouble with that part of the world, do we?
(Last quote from the more upbeat LA Times piece here.)
(via MyDD)
Update: anybody wondering about the post title can see this.
Update 2: On the good news front, a consortium of educational institutions here in PA is picking up where the feds are dropping out, by committing to an increasing reliance on wind power.
1 comment:
When are people going to wake up to the fact that the biggest national security threat to this country is our dependence on oil? If we didn't need oil we would not care if Iraq invaded Kuwait or anyone else. If we didn't need oil billions of dollars would not find a way to the Middle East. If they don't have our money they would not be able to fund armies and terrorists.
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