Tag: waxman-markey

Hope and Change: Obama administration kills Kyoto treaty.

Fair’s fair: if the previous administration had to take the heat for refusing to flush the American economy down the toilet for the sake of that nonsensical treaty, then so can this one.  This one goes out to every voter whose primary motivation for voting Democratic was climate change:

The United States never ratified the agreement because it doesn’t require any action from the developing world, including China, the world’s largest emitter. The Bush administration considered that a fatal flaw. And so does the Obama White House.

“The notion that we should have an agreement which looks explicitly and exclusively at a handful of countries, doesn’t seem right. The whole purpose of this is to move the world to a better place, not to move one set of countries down that road,” said Jonathan Pershing, a top U.S. negotiator.

Odd how this never came up during the campaign; in fact, quite the opposite.  Of course, now that the President’s in charge he has to actually do something besides pander to religious extremists like the Greens; so a more… nuanced stance becomes necessary.  Besides, it’s not like “It’s Bush’s fault” isn’t this administration’s handy-dandy, one size fits all excuse anyway.

Via Ronald Bailey of Reason Hit & Run (via Instapundit), who wants to know when Waxman-Markey’s going to go away now.  I assume that he’s being sarcastic: there’s too much money earmarked towards Democratic allies in that monstrosity to make it disappear right away.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Michael Williams’ Cap-and-Trade series, continued.

Part 4 and Part 5 of his cap-and-trade review are up.  Part 4 goes in quickly about the differences between the cap-and-trade restrictions of Waxman-Markey and the Clean Air Act (very quickly: it’s the difference between carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide); Part 5 discusses the problems that W-M is going to give Texas specifically.  Still remaining: the Chinese connection and how people can get involved.

Energy policy is going to loom rather large, running up the 2010 elections; should KBH resign her seat to run for Governor, it would be helpful to have this guy in there.  Heck, I wouldn’t mind having him in there now.

Moe Lane

PS: He’ll be at the RS Gathering.

Full disclosure: I am in regular contact with the Michael Williams campaign, and I endorse him as a replacement to Senator Hutchison, should she resign her Senate seat.

Crossposted to RedState.

Paul Krugman: 40% of America currently traitors.

(Via Sister Toldjah) We should never have let Paul Krugman fester behind that TimesSelect subscriber wall. It broke something inside of him:

But 212 representatives voted no. A handful of these no votes came from representatives who considered the bill too weak, but most rejected the bill because they rejected the whole notion that we have to do something about greenhouse gases.

And as I watched the deniers make their arguments, I couldn’t help thinking that I was watching a form of treason — treason against the planet.

Now, I’m not one who would normally get into a man’s religious beliefs, but any faith that requires you to anathematize what was at last count 40% of the population* as ‘traitors to the planet’ seems to be a very silly faith for a pundit to have, or at least espouse openly. For extra irony? I’ll bet you that if and when Krugman gets muttering drunk, one of his favorite topics of slurred discussion is probably a tirade on the subject of the perfidy of fundamentalist Christians.

Moe Lane

PS: Sister Toldjah has more at the link on the topics on the peculiarities of Krugman’s faith, the sudden permissibility of defining dissent as treason, and this administration’s own War on Science.  No reason to reproduce her work. Continue reading Paul Krugman: 40% of America currently traitors.

Meet Carol Browner, Energy Czar.

Via Ed Morrissey, witness her full and total awareness of the cap-and-trade monstrosity that her political party is threatening to unleash upon the world:

“I’ve read major portions of it, absolutely.”

You know, this is one of those times that I almost feel sorry for hyper-partisan Democrats. Can you imagine having to go through life having to pretend that this administration has any idea what it’s doing?

Moe Lane

PS: Actually, I would accept the “The executive branch hasn’t had an opportunity to read what the legislative branch has cobbled together yet…” excuse. Assuming, of course, that it’s immediately followed by “…which is why the President’s going to veto the bill and send it back to the House so that they can do a competent job this time.”

Until then… well. I voted for the other guy.

Crossposted to RedState.

Just as a clarification on TVC’s WH’s ‘Sunlight’ abandonment post.

It’s quite good (H/T: Instapundit), but it has one bit at the end that needs to be addressed:

UPDATE: FWIW, the Waxman-Markey climate bill passed 219-212. Any guess how many of those 219 (or, for that matter, the 212) really know everything that is in the bill? [bolding mine]

None of them, but I just want to make sure that there’s no false equivalence going on here. If you’re a Member of Congress and you’ve just been handed an insanely long bill and told “Vote on this” without being given any time to read or comprehend it, you actually can honorably vote on it. It’s just that the only vote that doesn’t break your oath of office would be No.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

How you know when you’ve gotten yourselves in a legislative pickle.

When you have to yank out a potential “Yes” vote from the pickle jar.

Vicious of me, yes, but my sympathy for Pat Kennedy isn’t what you’d call ‘high.’ And my sympathy for the Congressional Democrats for being so in need of his vote to pass their unseen monstrosity of a bill is even lower. Really: at this point, all you’re doing is writing the NRCC‘s campaign ads for them for next year.

And trust me: to quote the classics, they’re going to be open for business. Hi, Debbie Halvorson! Tell us again how independent you are!

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Watch this one to the end.

As Rep. Barton says, come on down. They’re trying to put a majority together, so if you’re a Democrat, now’s the time for a little short-term gain.

Moe Lane

PS: Got to love the machine-like precision and flawless choreography of the Pelosi/Waxman/Markey team, yes? Seventy vote difference, and they’re still going to have to work extra hours on a Friday night. If you ran a fast-food restaurant the way the Democrats run Congress, troubleshooters from Regional would have swooped in months ago to fire half of management.

Crossposted to RedState.

Michael Williams examines the cap-and-trade bill.

Michael Williams, current Texas Railroad Commissioner* and candidate for Senate, is doing a multi-part survey of the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill currently before Congress. He’s up to Part III (see also Part I & Part II, of course), and here’s what he’s hoping to accomplish with it:

Democrats in Congress, joined with the Obama administration, are proceeding along parallel tracks to impose CO2 regulations so sweeping as to become the most expensive and expansive environmental reach of government into the lives of American families, businesses and consumers in history.

In May, the House Energy and Commerce Committee approved the Waxman-Markey cap and trade bill that is designed to drastically reduce carbon dioxide emissions blamed for global warming. The full House could complete action on the bill within the next two weeks.

[snip]

The prospect for cap and trade is less certain in the Senate and the EPA, while poised to finalize its landmark finding, has not done so, yet. If enough Americans band together, we can still protect the American economy, jobs, and incomes from undue and unnecessary CO2 regulations.

Continue reading Michael Williams examines the cap-and-trade bill.