When the energy bill went before the Senate yesterday morning, it had been stripped of the Renewable Energy Standard, but it still retained the tax package, which would have reversed $13.5 billion in tax breaks to oil and gas companies to help pay for $21 billion worth of investment in renewable energy.
Republicans, as always, threatened a filibuster, so majority leader Harry Reid went for a cloture vote, for which he needed 60 votes. He got 59.
The final roll call shows that only one Democrat voted Nay: Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana. If she had voted Yea, the bill would have passed.
Over on Landrieu’s website, here’s the headline (h/t: DE): "Landrieu Sides with State Over Party in Energy Bill Vote".
But that’s horseshit. Landrieu sided with oil companies over the public interest. "The state" had nothing to do with it. Losing $13.5b of pork wouldn’t leave a dent on an industry that posted $771b in revenue in 2006, nor would it cause any economic downturn in Louisiana.
What working class and middle class Louisianans get from the rejection of the tax package is the same thing all Americans get: an energy field that remains tilted toward the stuff that’s destroying us.
