Henry Waxman, the chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and Ed Markey, chair of the Energy and Environment subcommittee, have just released a “discussion draft” of a comprehensive clean energy and climate change bill. The legislation is titled “The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009.” (Security is such a reassuring word, […]
The new chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Henry Waxman, has reconfigured the committee. (See Le roi est mort. Vive le roi., among other posts, on the critical importance of Waxman replacing John Dingell as chair of the full committee.) Very significantly, the Subcommittees on Energy and Air Quality and Environment and Hazardous […]
Henry Waxman did it. Waxman beats Dingell to chair energy committee is the story from Reuters. In a secret ballot vote of 137 to 122, the Democratic Caucus in the US House of Representatives voted to install a smart, tough, progressive to the chair of the most significant committee (in the House) by far for […]
House Panel Backs Waxman Over Dingell As Energy Chair is the story from ABC News. This news is not just big. It’s “yooge” as Bernie Sanders would say. Dingell may have finally created more discontent than the Democrats could support. It also may be that Waxman has been perceived as the right man for the […]
John McCain’s Role – Watching John McCain’s concession speech the other night, I was struck by the sincerity in his pledge to help the new President with the work ahead. Here’s an article from AP, via Yahoo, that gives me further food for thought: Democrats say McCain can help mediate standoffs. McCain has a track […]
It’s not as catchy as “Drill, Baby, Drill” but it’s actually where we’re going in the developed world. There have been a number of important developments recently entirely worthy of note. (See observations I’ve made previously in this area under Carbon Markets.) Energy and Commerce – The US House of Representatives’ Energy and Commerce Committee […]
Energy and Commerce Committee – We all seem agreed that substantive federal legislation addressing climate change will emerge from the 111th Congress. It seems entirely likely that the new Congress will have a measurably higher Democratic component than now, in both houses. (See this from PollingReport.com and this from the “NY Times” which reports that […]
There really are a ton of stories out there. Here’s a sampling: Cars – I’ve written recently about electric cars and other exciting initiatives. There are more developments on the automotive front. Mitsubishi and Peugeot have entered into an alliance to supply key components for electric vehicles and may build their own as well. See […]
Renewable fuel compromise key to bill is the headline from A.P. and we learn, among other things, that “Democratic leaders working on an energy bill were trying to forge compromises Monday to increase the use of renewable fuels both in cars and by electric utilities after reaching a deal earlier that would raise vehicle fuel […]
Dems Reach Deal on Energy Bill is the headline from A.P. this morning. What’s in? A 40% boost in the CAFE standards for the automakers and a 15% renewable portfolio standard for the utilities. What’s out? It appears that the rescission of the $16 billion tax breaks presently being enjoyed by the oil and gas […]
As noted immediately below, a leading British Conservative Party voice on taxes has (eloquently) explicated their view on “green taxes” , here we’re calling them carbon taxes. I also pointed out John Dingell’s manifesto on this recently. See Big John. Now a leading Republican Party economist, N. Gregory Mankiw, has stated, and quite unequivocally, why […]
“Kind of broad at the shoulders, narrow at the hip. And everybody knew you didn’t give no lip to Big John.”* I’ve written about and referenced House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair, John Dingell, a good number of times here. He’s the second-longest serving Congressman ever, highly respected and often feared. There’s a fascinating piece […]
We are poised for a big and hopefully exciting week on energy in the House. At “CNNMoney.com” there’s a good comprehensive read, Energy debate moves to House, on what to look for this week. As I’ve pointed out, there are a lot of good things that are not going to be subject to much debate, […]
National Petroleum Council Report – Okay, I will admit it: Because this was a report by the National Petroleum Council, from a task force led by ex-Exxon chief and vociferous global warming “skeptic” Lee Raymond, commissioned by a presidential administration that has been famously indifferent, if not hostile, to the environment, I didn’t take much […]
This week’s “Economist” has a leader (BritSpeak for editorial) and an article on the state of play in Congress on the energy bills and their relationship to climate change legislation. They are not complimentary. The editorial, A pale shade of green, is off base in several ways. I agree with some of what’s being said […]