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Colorado Springs Gazette:
After scaling back ambitious plans to cap and effectively tax greenhouse emissions in nearly every industry, Senate Democrats have finally conceded they cannot get the necessary 60 votes to pass even a bill to regulate only electric utilities.
The failure to impose a cap-and-trade regimen before the August recess is a major loss for the Obama administration, which deemed the bill necessary to fulfill the president’s campaign pledge to heal a “planet in peril.” Unlike health care, financial regulations and massive federal bailouts, there simply weren’t votes enough to push through what would be an extremely costly burden on the energy-using public at a time when more strain on the economy seems unthinkable to Americans who fear a second severe recession or even a depression.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid blamed Republicans, not a single one of whom would cross the aisle to support the legislation. But Reid also had defections within his own party, as the cost of aggressively restricting greenhouse emissions promised to be a campaign liability for Democrats hoping to save their jobs in November. Voters in most parts of the country aren’t in the mood to save the planet when saving their livelihoods and feeding their families seem like more realistic and pressing concerns.
We’re pleased to see the death — at least for now — of this massive tax increase and unwarranted expansion of federal authority. Reid will continue to pursue a scaled-down bill dealing with the Gulf oil spill and some green initiatives. But for now, at least, the threat of massive government intervention in the name of fighting the theory of anthropogenic global warming has been beaten back.
Last year, the House passed onerous cap-and-trade legislation to regulate greenhouse gas emissions on a wide scale. In the Senate, that approach gradually lost momentum, and effectively died in April when the lone Republican supporter, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, abandoned the cause. Subsequently, Democrats pushed a scaled-back version, targeting utilities. Even that couldn’t muster sufficient support.
Support had waned as challenges mounted to the presumption that global warming poses a dire threat, and increasing questions were raised about how much, if at all, man has to do with it. The credibility of leading global warming scientists has been seriously eroded, as information has surfaced that reveals a concerted effort to keep from the public scientific data that weakens the possibility of human-caused global warming. At the same time, politicians began to calculate the effect at the polls of implementing a drastic “solution” — which itself may have had little real positive effect — to a problem that may not exist.
The battle isn’t over.
There is the threat of a lame-duck Democratic Congress, during November and December, pushing through legislation with the aid of politicians who have nothing to lose. And the White House still plans to impose greenhouse gas regulations by administrative fiat through the Environmental Protection Agency. Health care reform should tell us Democrats and the Obama administration will do what it takes to ramrod their liberal agenda while they have the chance. For now, however, America has dodged the costly climate bullet that threatened to harm our economy. It’s unlikely the planet will melt any faster as a result.
— From the Orange County Register and The Gazette
After scaling back ambitious plans to cap and effectively tax greenhouse emissions in nearly every industry, Senate Democrats have finally conceded they cannot get the necessary 60 votes to pass even a bill to regulate only electric utilities.
The failure to impose a cap-and-trade regimen before the August recess is a major loss for the Obama administration, which deemed the bill necessary to fulfill the president’s campaign pledge to heal a “planet in peril.” Unlike health care, financial regulations and massive federal bailouts, there simply weren’t votes enough to push through what would be an extremely costly burden on the energy-using public at a time when more strain on the economy seems unthinkable to Americans who fear a second severe recession or even a depression.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid blamed Republicans, not a single one of whom would cross the aisle to support the legislation. But Reid also had defections within his own party, as the cost of aggressively restricting greenhouse emissions promised to be a campaign liability for Democrats hoping to save their jobs in November. Voters in most parts of the country aren’t in the mood to save the planet when saving their livelihoods and feeding their families seem like more realistic and pressing concerns.
We’re pleased to see the death — at least for now — of this massive tax increase and unwarranted expansion of federal authority. Reid will continue to pursue a scaled-down bill dealing with the Gulf oil spill and some green initiatives. But for now, at least, the threat of massive government intervention in the name of fighting the theory of anthropogenic global warming has been beaten back.
Last year, the House passed onerous cap-and-trade legislation to regulate greenhouse gas emissions on a wide scale. In the Senate, that approach gradually lost momentum, and effectively died in April when the lone Republican supporter, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, abandoned the cause. Subsequently, Democrats pushed a scaled-back version, targeting utilities. Even that couldn’t muster sufficient support.
Support had waned as challenges mounted to the presumption that global warming poses a dire threat, and increasing questions were raised about how much, if at all, man has to do with it. The credibility of leading global warming scientists has been seriously eroded, as information has surfaced that reveals a concerted effort to keep from the public scientific data that weakens the possibility of human-caused global warming. At the same time, politicians began to calculate the effect at the polls of implementing a drastic “solution” — which itself may have had little real positive effect — to a problem that may not exist.
The battle isn’t over.
There is the threat of a lame-duck Democratic Congress, during November and December, pushing through legislation with the aid of politicians who have nothing to lose. And the White House still plans to impose greenhouse gas regulations by administrative fiat through the Environmental Protection Agency. Health care reform should tell us Democrats and the Obama administration will do what it takes to ramrod their liberal agenda while they have the chance. For now, however, America has dodged the costly climate bullet that threatened to harm our economy. It’s unlikely the planet will melt any faster as a result.
— From the Orange County Register and The Gazette
