grist-georgia-psc-header-ai

legislation

  • Prepared statements of those testifying before the committee

    Prepared statements, now available:

    Brian Beutler Politics

  • Cardin wants more money for public transit

    Sen. Benjamin Cardin (D-Md.) says he can support the bill if it provides more funds for public transportation, including at the state level.

    He said this in the context of a response to Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), who wants the bill changed to a sector-by-sector (as opposed to economy-wide) cap-and-trade system. Cardin suggested that Senators shouldn't be demanding extraordinary changes to the legislation and threatening to withhold support unless their demands are met.

    My guess? Cardin's suggestion is futile.

    Brian Beutler Politics

  • Tom Carper requests improvements in ASCA

    Tom Carper (D-Del.) has said he will be able to support the legislation if it:

    • includes provisions to mitigate pollutants like nitrogen oxide and mercury found most widely in the northeastern United States;
    • moves to a more just allocation system -- one that devotes more credits to cleaner energy sources;
    • contains no built-in punishment of early actors, companies that have already begun mitigating their emissions.

    Not the most ambitious of demands, but there they are.

    Brian Beutler Politics

  • Public transit will be necessary for CO2 reductions

    At the end of October, both New Jersey Democratic Senator Frank Lautenberg and, believe it or not, Mississippi Republican Senator Trent Lott, passed their cosponsored bill in the Senate to allocate $1.9 billion per year for six years to expand passenger rail in the U.S. According to Parade magazine (yes, the one that's inserted into Sunday newspapers), the main goal is "to develop high-speed, short-haul rail corridors modeled on the European city-to-city routes. They could run between Washington, D.C., and Charlotte, N.C.; Portland and Seattle; Chicago and Detroit; Miami and Jacksonville, Fla." In addition, the Senate wants to give Amtrak a solid long-term financial foundation. (Imagine!)

    The same Parade article, entitled "A better way to travel," extols the benefits of rail:

    Many transportation experts insist that the best answer to transportation gridlock is efficient intercity rail travel. Trains use one-fifth less energy than cars or planes ... Amtrak ridership was up for the fifth year in a row, reaching record levels -- despite the fact that a third of trains arrived late last year ... Severe weather will further add to the transportation turmoil, leading travelers to look for alternatives to air travel.

    And what about global warming? The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) released a report in September 2007, "Public Transportation's Contribution to Greenhouse Gas Reduction" which directly addresses the issue. According to their calculations, public transit, use saves 37 percent of the CO2 that would have been emitted had private transportation been used (19.2 million metric tons, including traffic congestion) instead of public transit ( 12.3 million metric tons). And that's including a lot of diesel-powered trains and buses.

    Jon Rynn Politics

  • Don’t let Big Meat slaughter the packer ban

    Note: An earlier version of this post appeared briefly Friday. I pulled it down because of a misunderstanding involving a leaked document. I’ve deleted references to the document in this post, but hope to be able to post about it soon. In the debate over the Senate ag committee’s farm bill version, a key facet […]

    Tom Philpott Politics

  • Blumenauer responds

    In case you don’t read comments: In response to Mike Grunwald’s post on the Water Resources Development Act, Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) of the Corps Reform Caucus explains why he made the difficult decision to vote for it.

    David Roberts Politics

  • The Farm Bill debate does hinge on subsidies

    This is a guest post from Britt Lundgren, an Agricultural Policy Fellow at Environmental Defense. —– Tom Philpott’s recent column on the ongoing debate over Farm Bill reform raises some interesting points, including the idea that commodity subsidies may not be the root cause of overproduction. But he misses the real point behind the debate, […]

    David Roberts Politics

  • Hound your representative to add an RPS to the energy bill

    If scientists could take the repeated dashing of hopes for a better future and harness it to make electrons, we'd have electricity too cheap to meter. If the crushing of expectations were a renewable resource, this Congress is truly on the cutting edge of the clean energy revolution.

    Apparently, Senator Reid and Speaker Pelosi met on Thursday morning and decided to move an energy bill that does not include an RPS [see this post]. Or a tax title. No tax title means no extension of the investment tax credit for solar, and no extension of the production tax credit for wind. Let's see ... nothing for solar, plus nothing for wind, ... add no RPS, carry the zero ... yep, that adds up to nothing for renewable energy. Got that? Congressional leadership is moving an energy bill with nothing in it for renewable energy.

    We've got maybe 24 hours to turn this around. I suggest a phone blitz. Melt the %$@*! switchboard. Call your representative. Suggested script:

    Adam Browning Politics

  • The Lieberman-Warner full committee markup …

    … will take place on Dec. 5 (sub. rqd.). Lieberman says he’s open to some changes, as long as they don’t splinter the coalition: Lieberman said he didn’t expect the bill’s 2020 emission target (about 15 percent below 2005 levels) to change. But he added there may be consensus on tightening the 2050 limits that […]

    David Roberts Politics