The Mixture As Before

We’ve come to the conclusion that while there’s a lot of talk going on in Congress, the closest it will come, in the immediate future, to bringing us renewable energy is if those magnificent high ceilings designed by Thomas Walter are replaced by hot air capture devices, perhaps linked to a Stirling engine.

Yes, there’s a lot of superheated air rising from the chamber floors these days—not an unusual occurrence in itself, but now it seems to be taking the place of real debate on issues of vital importance to our energy future. When Senate Majority Leader Reid resurrected the Energy and Tax Extenders Act of 2008 (HR6049) for another cloture vote last week we assumed, not unnaturally, that this would lead to some serious back-room bargaining between individuals from House and Senate, so that agreement could be reached before taking up Senate floor time with a nugatory vote.

Silly us.

As far as we can tell, little or no closed-door negotiation took place in the week before the vote, so the bill presented at roll-call was essentially identical to that which had died the week before. And, predictably, the outcome was almost identical (52-44, meaning that a Republican filibuster could not be stopped). And again, Reid changed his vote to nay so that he could bring the same bill back yet again after the 4th July break.

To quote The Who, we don’t get fooled aga-a-i-in.

Have Congressional leaders truly given up on finding creative ways of dealing with legislation that’s crying out to be passed? Reid’s tactics remind one of the computer neophyte repeatedly performing the same sequence of keystrokes that have failed to work before. Perhaps this time……..

If we were being uncharitable, we’d say that House Democrats were following a deliberate tactic of proposing good legislation in a way they knew would not succeed, to put Senate Republicans in the position of being anti-clean energy in this election year. If we were being mean-spirited, we might say that Senate Republicans are backing unfunded proposals (like this week’s re-insertion by John Ensign (R-NV) of an $8 billion package of tax credit extensions into the Housing bill, without revenue offsets) that they know the House will reject in the name of fiscal responsibility, so as to show how little Democrats in Congress have achieved. If we were being cynical, we would say that the well-being of the renewables industry and the hopes of Americans hungry for clean energy were being callously sacrificed to these ends.

Is it possible to believe so ill of our leaders? Would you prefer to think that each group is simply holding fast to its principles, hoping the other will experience an epiphany and completely drop its opposition?

In all seriousness, we would. But to be practical, when bills of this importance have been before Congress in the past, that body’s time-honored routine of conferencing its way to an acceptable compromise has usually won the day. So we’re bound to ask, why not this time?