A Wee Bit of Good News

Looks like Crap and Tax is shelved for the year. If true, this is good news.

President Barack Obama’s top energy adviser said Friday there is no way Congress will be able to pass a bill on climate change this year.”That’s not going to happen,” said the adviser, Carol Browner.

Browner made the statement at a conference organized by The Atlantic magazine, just days after Senate Democrats introduced a major bill on climate change. In a video posted on the magazine’s Web site, Browner was asked about the prospects of enacting climate legislation by the time negotiations on a global climate treaty begin in December in Copenhagen.

“Obviously, we’d like to be through the process, but that’s not going to happen,” Browner said. “I think we would all agree the likelihood you would have a bill signed by the president on comprehensive energy by the time we go early in December is not likely.”

Senate Democrats unveiled a bill Wednesday that aims to cut greenhouse gasses by 20 percent by 2020. The House passed a bill in June that calls for a 17 percent emission cut by 2020.

The Senate bill includes an economy-wide cap-and-trade system that would require power plants, industrial facilities and refineries to cut carbon dioxide and other climate-changing pollution. While there would be an overall emission cap, polluters would be able to purchase emission allowances to limit reductions. The bill, however, does not lay out how emission allowances would be distributed, a contentious issue left for resolving later.

If they can’t ram this through this year, it’ll be even more difficult next year. As Rep. Candice Miller (R-MI) put it:

“Making its way through Congress is a ‘cap-and-trade’ national energy tax that would increase electricity bills, raise gasoline prices, and ship more American jobs overseas. According to the Obama Administration’s own estimates, this national energy tax would cost American households an extra $1,700 per year. There could not be a worse time to heap additional pain on families struggling to make ends meet.”

That’s not something the Blue Dogs are going to want to do in an election year. I guess we’ll find out in a few months what planet they’re living on.