Obama White House Continues Right-Wing Pandering & Left-Wing Slamming

President Obama’s administration had better start figuring out who helped propel them into office and who will never vote for them.

In the wake of the Obama administration’s largest initiative failure to date, an administration official ran crying to the tone-deaf Politico, telling them that it was all the enviros fault that a climate and energy bill won’t be taken up in the dysfunctional, anti-democratic Senate this year.

While Obama’s team keeps asking, “How high?” every time Fox Propaganda and Rush think about telling them to jump, action on issue after issue is reduced to a hollow shell and progressives are kicked to the bottom of the ditch by the side of the road.

The biggest problem with this whole scenario isn’t Obama or Sen. Reid or the right-wing disinformation and smear bloc – it’s unelected yo-yos like this official who just like to see their b.s. in D.C.-based media.  These clowns don’t care what the science says; they don’t care what Americans outside of D.C. think or want.  They’re attention whores and they’ll gladly sabotage any initiative that leans slightly left of the tea-baggers.

“They didn’t deliver a single Republican,” the official told POLITICO. “They spent like $100 million and they weren’t able to get a single Republican convert on the bill.”

In this idiot’s world, the administration is supposed to sit back and let issue groups write legislation and decide who needs to be targeted to pass it.  The President has the biggest bully pulpit in this country, but it’s people like this official who are holding him and this country back from the greatness we can achieve.

How much did the dirty energy corporations spend to water down the House legislation and water down the Senate Committee version even further? A lot more than $100 million, I assure you.  Which amounts to round-off error for corporations posting the biggest profits in the history of the world.

Politico does provide some context for how monumental this failure really is for the Obama administration:

Eighteen months ago, Barack Obama took office pledging to deal with a “planet in peril.”

His party held big majorities in Congress, and the House answered by passing a tough cap-and-trade bill. A massive climate conference in Copenhagen, with Obama at the center of the action, focused the world on the need to address global warming.

Then came the nation’s worst-ever environmental disaster, an oil spill in the Gulf that put momentum behind environmentalists and scarred the image of big, polluting industries.

Add in a summer of record-high temperatures, and it would seem the stars had been aligned like never before for climate legislation.

Climate legislation that the cowardly Dems have decided not to pursue this year.  Because there’s always next year, or maybe 2012 would be better … no, there’s a Presidential election that year – we wouldn’t want the Dems to have to make tough decisions while running for re-election.  Well, there’s always 2013, right?  I mean, big parts of the Health Insurance Reform Giveaway won’t even take effect until 2013 or 2014.  The Dems could certainly take up at least a small climate/energy bill in 2013 or so.

By all means, keep putting the most important issue our species faces until it’s a sure thing politically.  It’s not like this country faces any kind of negative consequences as a result of your continued inaction incompetence.

Just don’t take progressives’ votes and hard work for granted after you keep slapping us aside.

Senate Climate Bill Draft Finally Introduced: The American Power Act

[Update]: Here are some initial write-ups about the legislation – something to peruse until more specific commentary can be put together.

MSNBC

Huffington Post

Daniel Weiss at Climate Progress

Original Post:

It’s still early in the process of passing climate legislation, but Sens. John Kerry and Joe Lieberman today will finally introduce a draft bill to address our climate and energy crises: The American Power Act (S1733).  As we saw with the health care insurance legislation that eventually made it through the Senate, a lot can happen to a bill after being introduced – including not passing at all, which is what has happened for decades.  This is a prime example of science meshing with politics.  As someone who has studied science and experienced politics, I can’t say I’m optimistic about either this bill’s chances of passing the Senate or this bill’s effects.  I will continue by saying now that I sincerely hope I’m wrong on both counts.  The survivability of our civilization and countless species across the globe largely depends on me being wrong.

With the bill being released to the public as of this afternoon, the analysis of the bill and comparison between it and the House version (ACES, H.R. 2454) which passed last summer can begin.  As I view the climate crisis as the leading issue of our day (indeed, the leading issue of our generation and likely our species’ existence), I will have much more to say about its details, how debate alters it and whether it will or will not be passed by the entire Senate.

I think an argument can be made that given recent dirty energy-related disasters have occurred in the U.S., now could be the best time to really push progressive changes to the legislation.  American’s attention will eventually turn away from the Massey mine explosion and the Gulf oil volcano.  The climate crisis is simply a slower version of these kinds of disasters – all man-made and all similarly preventable by our actions.  Thus I ask: Where is President Obama on this issue?  Yes, there is a lot on his plate right now.  But this culmination of events likely won’t occur together again for some time.  As attention wanes, public pressure for short- and long-term climate and energy solutions will also likely decrease.  The climate doesn’t care what the political will or pressure is within the U.S.  It’s going to continue doing what it has been doing until physical balances are once again reached.

For now, a few links to materials that easily shatter the most likely myths that will be cited by the fringe right-wing to defeat this legislation.

McKinsey Global Institute’s June 2008 Carbon Productivity paper.  This report addresses the “It will cost too much to implement anything” myth.  See especially p.15 (Exhibit 5) which details how readily available cost savings are from a number of proposed activities.  Many solutions pay for themselves quickly and many times over.  Others have a higher cost, but even some of those costs will fall as larger economies of scale are exploited.

Institute for Local Self-Reliance’s October 2009 Energy Self-Reliant States report.  The wind section was just updated this month.  This paper addresses the “We have no choice but to continue to use dirty energy” myth.  I’m not sure which of these two myths is more absurd.  As this report demonstrates, Colorado is one of a number of states (mostly in the middle of the country) which has >1000% electricity self-sufficiency using combined clean energy sources (wind, solar, geothermal & hydro).  Yes, you read that correctly: more than one-thousand percent.  A majority of states have far more potential electricity potential available today with clean sources than they use from dirty sources.

And now, I have some reading to do…

Dems “Vow” To Push Climate Legislation

Excuse me while I yawn after reading something so silly.  Senate Democrats have vowed to introduce this legislation for the past 15 months.  It has yet to be introduced.  Senate Democrats have no idea what they’re doing in terms of controlling the schedule or the debate on most issues.  They botched the stimulus (certainly not enough, as  I fear we’ll come to find), they botched health care legislation (which turned into a massive health insurance giveaway), they botched climate and energy (the House has been done with their bill for almost a year now) and they’ve botched immigration (I don’t think it’s the leading issue of our time, but they certainly allowed racist Arizonans to decide when it was going to be handled).

So when I read the Senate Democrats are planning on introducing their climate and energy legislation this Wednesday, after last Monday’s false start thanks to Arizona, consider me underwhelmed.  The American people by large numbers wanted something, anything to happen with regard to health care.  Those numbers don’t exist for climate and energy legislation, despite the obviously larger degree of necessity for a 21st century policy approach.  What I think that means is there won’t be 60 votes to stop the pathetic batch of losers known as the Senate Cons from stopping everything from moving forward.  The Cons think they need to move even further toward the political fringe because a minute number of over-spoken, wealthy white men have managed to convince the corporate media that they’re more politically important than demonstrable majorities of the rest of America.

If Democrats cannot introduce and pass progressive climate and energy legislation while they control historic majorities in the House and Senate while also controlling the White House, it won’t happen any time soon.  By the time it does, critical tipping points will have been handily passed and any future actions taken will be more expensive and less effective than if they had been passed in 2009 or 2010.

Because here’s what the entire topic boils down to: the climate doesn’t care what kind of political support climate legislation enjoys in any country.  The climate is a physical process that is responding to our forcing more than it is responding to natural forcing.  It will do what it will do.  We can push it even further out of the balance it was in for most of past few hundred thousand years or we can stop forcing it and allow it to regain an equilibrium more suitable for the current variety of life on this planet.

Deniers Ignored IPCC Predictions; Draw Wrong Conclusions About Big Snowstorms

I doubt this is going to surprise anyone in this reality-based community: Republicans are trying to use the record-setting snow accumulations along the East Coast to conclude that climate change isn’t occurring. Unfortunately, a number of Democrats are choosing to pursue short-term political expediency rather than long-term societal stability.

So I’ll start with my own conclusion: this winter’s precipitation fulfills key predictions made by climate scientists.

The climate doesn’t care if legislators make excuses to not work on climate safety. The climate doesn’t care if they do work on it. Absent aggressive, immediate action, the effects of climate change, like this winter’s snow storms, will continue to pile up on all of us. Doing something about it, like clearing feet of snow over hundreds of square miles, repairing broken power lines, etc., will only cost us more and more as time goes on.

The climate will have the last laugh. We might not find it so funny, however.

Below, I provide evidence that these snowstorms are likely to become more common for the East Coast.

Even Progressive Senators Don’t Grasp Importance of Climate Change

I read a blog post about progressive Senate Democrats pushing Sen. Reid for a public option.  I wholeheartedly support such a push for a number of reasons.  Because I’m like most Americans, I encourage the push because I want true health care reform legislation to pass.  Not the watered down health insurance “reform” crap that CorporateDems and Republicans have forced in the House, but real reform, which is increasingly more unlikely this year, to the detriment of our country.

Sen. Inhofe’s Energy/Climate Bill Boycott Fails [Update X2]

On Halloween, I wrote a post detailing Sen. Inhofe’s (R-Denier) attempt to stop the Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee from doing their jobs and voting on a piece of legislation.  Why boycott the energy and climate legislation committee markup?  Because then it may not get out of that committee, dying before an up-or-down vote could be made in the whole Senate.  That up-or-down concept received a lot of attention when the Cons were in charge and Democrats were trying to debate the Cons’ bills and offer amendments.  Now?  Not so much.  Hypocrites.

In response to Sen. Inhofe’s childish tantrum to not play with others, Sen. Boxer laid out a potential work-around: using an interpretation of the rules to move the bill out of committee without having any minority party members present.  The committee met today to vote on the bill.  Sen. Inhofe and his car of clowns didn’t bother to show up.  Sen. Boxer had the committee vote – and they passed the bill out.

Sen. Inhofe, predictably, ran to the press, crying that things were so unfair and Sen. Boxer was a big meanie who didn’t want to listen to them.

Who the frack cares?  Seriously.  The Cons made the decision to not participate.  They know what’s at stake, which is why they’re trying to prevent any reasonable consideration of energy and climate legislation.  They have dirty energy corporations to appease with their votes.  As to Inhofe’s complaint that how often the procedure has been used?  More nonsense.  Either come to the table with an intent to do some work or shut the hell up.

This leads to 2 conclusions.  1: Do your damn job, Cons!  2: More of this, please.  If the Cons don’t want to participate in good faith, Dems shouldn’t let that hold them back from moving bills through Congress.

[Update 11/6/09]: Oh, Max Baucus (Bought-ND) was the only person to vote against the bill.  10-1 was the final number and all of them were Democrats.  I don’t care that the bill passed as it relates to Baucus.  He tried to destroy the health care bill and voted against this bill.  I’m supporting whoever his next opponent is – in a potential primary but for sure the general election.  Votes have consequences, Max.  You’re done.

[Update 2 11/8/09]: The more you read, the more you know.  It turns out that the Cons wanted the EPA to redo a lengthy analysis on the legislation, something the EPA justifiably rejected on the grounds that the differences between a new analysis and an analysis already done would be undetectable by their models.  Further, I read this at Climate Progress:

Since 2001, the Senate has debated at least eight energy or global warming bills where there was no analysis by EPA, Congressional Budget Office or the Energy Information Administration completed in advance of Committee deliberations.

Isn’t that interesting?  Senate Cons have no valid reason to demand another analysis be done, not when they didn’t allow, request or demand such studies be performed during their mishandling of the Senate in the recent past.

The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 Is Introduced

House Energy and Commerce Chair Henry Waxman and Energy and Environment Subcommittee Chair Ed Markey released their draft energy and climate bill last Tuesday.  It’s very comprehensive.  It’s also far from perfect.  It’s also, for now, just a draft, sure to change and be amended.  For those of you who just want a quick peek at what this bill is about, here is the bill’s 5-page summary (pdf) and here is a portion of the introduction:

The legislation has four titles: (1) a “clean energy” title that promotes renewable sources of energy and carbon capture and sequestration technologies, low-carbon transportation fuels, clean electric vehicles, and the smart grid and electricity transmission; (2) an “energy efficiency” title that increases energy efficiency across all sectors of the economy, including buildings, appliances, transportation, and industry; (3) a “global warming” title that places limits on the emissions of heat-trapping pollutants; and (4) a “transitioning” title that protects U.S. consumers and industry and promotes green jobs during the transition to a clean energy economy.

Overall, the bill is pretty decent.  It’s not as strong as I think it should be.  Knowing that it will be amended and changed in subcommittees, committees and during Senate-House negotiations, I’m afraid I see too much room for major weakening to be done.  There is no time left for weakening.  The U.S. needs to take an aggressive stance on greenhouse forcing.  We’ve caused plenty of change to the climate system already with even more to come that’s “in the pipeline”.  Whatever this legislation ends up doing, it will take time to implement and then more time to take effect.  Then there will be interactions with the international community.  As the world’s largest greenhouse forcer, it is up to us to take responsibility for our actions and start leading the world on the most critical 21st century issue we’ll face.

Below, I go through most of the 5-page summary items.  The items stack up to a pretty big list.  Having this draft summary is important as we’ll see what changes are implemented in the next couple of months and what the final legislation ends up containing.  Oh, and if you’re feeling really adventurous, here is the entire draft bill (Big pdf!).