Friedman on Waxman-Markey
This is a very good column:
There is much in the House cap-and-trade energy bill that just passed that I absolutely hate. It is too weak in key areas and way too complicated in others. A simple, straightforward carbon tax would have made much more sense than this Rube Goldberg contraption. It is pathetic that we couldn’t do better. It is appalling that so much had to be given away to polluters. It stinks. It’s a mess. I detest it.
Now let’s get it passed in the Senate and make it law.
One thing I will say is that I think it’s absolutely vital that Senators start out by writing a new, much better bill than the one that passed the House rather than using the House bill as a starting point. The reason is that I think that for any given climate bill, there are a lot of Senators from coal areas who will insist on weakening the bill to make it more coal-friendly. The Senators in question aren’t going to care that coal state House members already did this. They need to do it personally so they can claim credit. So you need to go back to a cleaner bill, then basically let the coal state Democrats do what Rick Boucher (D-WV) already did all over again. That way they can say that they changed the bill, and saved Appalachia from the depredations of the environmentalists, which sounds a lot better than just giving Boucher the credit.
And, yes, that’s stupid. But I’m quite confident that’s how congress works.
17 Responses to “Friedman on Waxman-Markey”
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July 1st, 2009 at 10:48 am
Boucher is not from WV, Rahall and Mollohan are the Democrats.
Byrd is ill and the coal industry dislikes and distrusts Rockefeller. We’ll see what sort of input they have.
July 1st, 2009 at 10:50 am
Rick Boucher (formerly my congressman) is actually from from Virginia. But it’s a coal mining district, so the rest of your comments are probably accurate.
July 1st, 2009 at 10:51 am
And, yes, that’s stupid. But I’m quite confident that’s how congress works.
Congress’ motto: “Dare to be stupid.”
(Yes, I’m quoting Weird Al again. Why not?)
July 1st, 2009 at 10:54 am
The Senate is not that smart. They will fuck this up even worse and nothing good will come out of it.
July 1st, 2009 at 11:06 am
The problem is that the Democratic congress hasn’t framed climate change enough as a security issue. Numerous reports and think tanks have spoken on how climate change destabilizes developing countries by increasing the risks of drought, famine, flooding and migration. Who’s going to have to deal with this? We are. If climate change can be framed more as a security/readiness issue, then I think we’re in a much better position to pass ACES with Republican support. for more check out
climatesecurity.blogspot.com
July 1st, 2009 at 11:46 am
And, yes, that’s stupid. But I’m quite confident that’s how congress works.
I’d say that how Congress works is that the Senate will start with a bill that’s weaker than the House’s, in the spirit of “bipartisanship”. Then it will get far, far more craptastic.
Personally, I think Kucinich may be right on this — just scrap the whole miserable thing. It looks like it could actually make things worse.
July 1st, 2009 at 11:53 am
Brother Gary!
If only we can get Lockhead-Martin building solar panels, then the M-I complex will save us … right?
July 1st, 2009 at 11:54 am
[...] 1, 2009 · Leave a Comment a deconstruction: One thing I will say is that I think it’s absolutely vital that Senators start out by writing a [...]
July 1st, 2009 at 12:08 pm
Russ! M-I? please, now there’s a green-industrial complex!
July 1st, 2009 at 12:10 pm
Tom didn’t even mention that the next 6 months will be critical to getting the bill passed.
July 1st, 2009 at 12:16 pm
How about we immediately ban on mountaintop removal (which provides only 7% of the coal America produces?)
It seems we always talk about ‘compromise’ in terms of giving away – we should negotiate with sticks instead of carrots. Tell Big Coal that we will do a full ban on coal (replacing miners’jobs with wind turbine manufacturing) if they don’t fall in line with a strong bill with only a ban on mountaintop mining.
July 1st, 2009 at 12:23 pm
Given the margin the House I’m starting to think it’s unlikely that the Senate will pass anything at all, which is fine with me because then the EPA can go ahead and regulate, probably with better results.
July 1st, 2009 at 12:36 pm
which is fine with me because then the EPA can go ahead and regulate,
Yeah, screw the democratic process. It’s just to hard.
July 1st, 2009 at 12:38 pm
“there are a lot of Senators from coal areas who will insist on weakening the bill to make it more coal-friendly.”
Who cares? Form what i understand from this blog, no matter what we pass, it’s going to matter little in the grander scheme of things. That is, it won’t cut emissions enough to dent GW. Rather, the promise is that by acting, the world’s largest economy can induce other countries to cooperate.
So why not just pass it with a bunch of compromises that make people happy, then let the international love-fest begin?
July 1st, 2009 at 12:48 pm
I object to Friedman’s notion that in order to get congresses attention 1 million people need to show up in the Washington Mall. Why not instead of buying a plane ticket to go to Washington people just give that money to any number of environmental organizations in Washington? Its like he thinks its free to have a million people come to Washington.
July 1st, 2009 at 3:53 pm
When I wonder why the founding stupnagels created a House of Lor…er…Senate, I realize the body was created for times such as these.
Safe from the swirling tempest (bi-annual elections), Senators can deliberate cooly and proceed confidently to hack off the excess in legislation passed to it from the lowly legislative body known to them as The Rabble (Congress). Powerful beyond measure and with leisure time up the ass, Senators can while away the hours with the fine chisel, and produce legislation of which Michelangelo would be proud.
I raise a glass to America’s noble one hundred. May you always do us proud.
July 2nd, 2009 at 12:30 pm
Rick Boucher represents Virginia’s 9th District, which covers extreme Southwest Virginia (think Ralph Stanley country).