rssBingaman: A Tough Road for Cap-and-Trade This Year
Wednesday, January 06, 2010 at 6:10 pm
- 7 Comments
This morning we ran a piece anticipating the difficulties facing Democratic leaders as they try to make good on their progressive campaign promises during a tough election year, when rallying the support of party moderates is certain to be a chore. And no bill will be tougher to pass in 2010 than that tackling climate change, which proposes adoption of a controversial cap-and-trade system designed to limit the nation’s greenhouse emissions.
Turns out Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, is well aware of the troubles confronting that proposal this year, telling The Associated Press this week that Senate passage is unlikely in 2010.
Bingaman said the concern is that if Congress does not move forward on cap-and-trade legislation, emission reductions will be forced by federal regulators.
“That will also drive up utility rates,” he said. “The question is what will drive up utility rates the least, so that’s what we’re still trying to determine.”
And that was before Democratic Sens. Byron Dorgan (N.D.) and Chris Dodd (Conn.) shook up Washington yesterday with back-to-back announcements that neither would be back on Capitol Hill next year.
7 Comments
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Comment posted January 6, 2010 @ 8:07 pm
I have to plug the Nation piece again by James Hansen. Read it. If anyone has authority to talk about climate change, it's him.
Hell, you should just buy his book and read that. The man only works for NASA.
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20100111/hansen
I feel like his idea of fee and divide is the single payer of the climate bill though. It's the best Idea, but will be inconvenient to energy companies the way single payer would be inconvenient to insurance companies. With cap and trade, energy companies get FREE credits. What's the point? Why not just mandate private health insurance? Oh wait, that already happened.
Comment posted January 7, 2010 @ 4:28 am
President Barack Obama will have to rely on support from Bingaman and others in the Senate to achieve one of his top domestic priorities, which is setting up a cap-and-trade system that would put a price on each ton of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that are released.
Comment posted January 7, 2010 @ 2:14 pm
Hopefully this will allow Senator Bingaman and his colleagues to take a fresh look at the alternatives to cap and trade, like a revenue-neutral carbon tax.
Comment posted January 7, 2010 @ 7:14 pm
Hopefully this will allow Senator Bingaman and his colleagues to take a fresh look at the alternatives to cap and trade, like a revenue-neutral carbon tax.
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