So after much debate, some watering down, and a lively vote that dragged well into a Saturday night, the House has passed a wide-ranging energy bill with some pretty big environmental implications. The bill, which has been a priority of Speaker Pelosi's in her first year leading House Dems, most significantly will require utilities to produce 15% of their electricity from renewable sources like solar and wind, a provision dubbed the Renewable Electricity Standard (RES). "It's a big, big deal," boasted Rep.
So remember how we wrote a couple weeks back about a pretty exciting political global warming victory in the House with the passing of the new Energy Bill. Well now Speaker Pelosi, aiming for broader support in-party from Dems in oil-rich states, is watering down the bill a bit. Alas, language to increase federal fuel efficiency standards (CAFE standards) has been dropped. As has the "renewable energy standard" that would require utilities to generate a certain amount of power from renewable sources.
It was sort of like how Larry Bird used to tell the other team how he was going to score, then, as promised, knocked down the predicted jump shot. Before these international policy talks between the world’s largest greenhouse gas polluters, the Bush administration laid their G8 climate playbook out for all to see, then came away from the summit with a victory. It was awesome when Bird would do it; but when the U.S. “wins” a climatic match, all the world (not least the icecaps and atmosphere) suffers the agony of defeat.
