Posted by
BLOGASSAULT on Sunday, April 19, 2009 11:02:30 PM
As Congress returns to work today after a two-week recess, energy and the environment have moved ahead of health care as the top priorities for lawmakers in the next three months.
The change came after the Environmental Protection Agency ruling that carbon dioxide — the fourth-largest component of the atmosphere — is a hazard to human health because of global warming.
Democratic leaders could use the decision, announced Friday, as a lever to move House and Senate Democrats who have been reluctant to support legislation that would charge fees for carbon emissions. If Congress refuses to act, the EPA will put its own regulations in place to curb carbon emissions.
“The decision rendered by the EPA obviously puts the legislative process on a much shorter timetable,” said Rep. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., who heads a House committee on global warming.
Need to remember to send a thank you card to the dummies at tht EPA for laying the foundation for our soon to be coming, higher energy bill.
With this time frame in mind, the House this week will hold hearings on a bill drafted by Markey and House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry A. Waxman, D-Calif., to cap carbon emissions and require those who pollute beyond the cap to pay extra. Their bill includes dozens of other new regulations, such as a requirement that power companies get a quarter of their energy from renewable sources within 15 years.
You do realize that converting 25% of current energy production to some kind of renewable deal will cost a fortune.
The Waxman-Markey bill also targets the auto industry with a proposal to nationalize low fuel-emission standards for vehicles made in the United States and a call for producing more electric cars.
Serves them right. They will no longer be able to build cars that people want, only those that congress says they can.
Well, I would say there is enough hopenchange in that bill to last a lifetime. Pretty soon we will all need the government.