A story today in the Wall Street Journal (which, sadly, you can’t see without a paid subscription), digs into an Office of Management and Budget report on the energy legislation pending before the Senate. Here’s the relevant bit:
The OMB said the president will oppose an amendment that would require utilities to produce 10% of their power from solar, wind and other renewable sources by 2020.
The White House budget experts said the administration "is not convinced of the need" for several pending amendments that propose different ways to restrict the nation’s industrial output of carbon dioxide and other "greenhouse gases." The president will oppose "any climate change amendments that are inconsistent with the president’s climate change strategy," which remains centered on voluntary emissions-reduction efforts, the OMB said.
In case you wondered where the White House stood …
Would Bush veto a bill just because it contained renewable targets or CO2 caps? I doubt it — he’s been begging for an energy bill for years, and scuttling it in such a transparent sop to his fossil-contributors would be politically ugly.
But we’ll likely never find out. If anything sinks the bill, it will be the MTBE liability shield that the House (read: Tom Delay) is so hot for.
