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Breaking: Waxman, Peterson announce agreement on cap-and-trade bill paving way for final vote this week

By Joe Romm on Jun 23, 2009 at 9:34 pm

From a scientific perspective, the deal Waxman made with the aggies is not optimal.  From the perspective of consequences in the real world, however, I just don’t see how this deal changes any of the major outcomes of the bill much, if at all.

UPDATE:  I’ve added comments on the deal from Dr. Michael MacCracken, a top U.S. climate scientist.

E&E News (subs. req’d) reports on what it took to secure the farm vote:

Two powerful House Democratic committee chairmen announced terms of a deal this evening on a comprehensive global warming bill, paving the way for a vote later this week.

Agriculture Chairman Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) told reporters today he would vote for the House climate bill — and bring dozens of rural lawmakers with him — after Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) agreed to make a number of concessions that had drawn the ire of farm state members….

“We have something that I think works for agriculture,” Peterson said. “We have a couple of areas that may get resolved down the line, but I think we have a meeting of the minds about where we are generally headed.”

Like the bill as a whole, the deal is imperfect.  But in the real world, I think the compromises are unlikely to have much if any overall impact on the bill’s key outcomes.  Let me start with the deal on the life-cycle analysis of biofuels:

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Politics

DeMint refuses to vouch for Sanford’s character: ‘Who knows?’

By Ali Frick on Jun 23, 2009 at 8:01 pm

This afternoon, Fox News’ Glenn Beck suggested that Gov. Mark Sanford’s (R-SC) apparent disappearance is simply a media ploy to “discredit” the governor, and that his wife and others knew his whereabouts. (They did not.) When Beck asked Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) whether he could “vouch for [Sanford's] character,” DeMint refused:

BECK: Can you vouch for his character, that he is what he seems to be?

DEMINT: He always has been up front with me, but, you know, who knows? I don’t know if we can vouch for each other’s character, but he is a good friend of mine and obviously I hope he is okay.

Watch it:

This morning, Sanford’s office declared that the governor was “hiking” on the Appalachian Trail, and would be back in the office tomorrow. However, NBC’s Greenville, SC affiliate is reporting that “a federal agent spotted Sanford in the [Atlanta] airport boarding a plane,” and that a missing state vehicle — presumably the car Sanford took — was found at the Atlanta airport as well.

Politics

Ensign receives ‘round of applause’ from GOP colleagues.

By Amanda Terkel on Jun 23, 2009 at 7:05 pm

ap090616024817 Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) reportedly received a “round of applause” from his GOP colleagues today at the weekly conference lunch, his “first meeting with them since the sex scandal that cost him his leadership position.” “All I can say for sure is that it [Ensign's speech] was very, very sincere, very heartfelt and very well received in our caucus,” said Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN), who was at the meeting. Ensign’s welcome is similar to the reaction Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) received, when “he was welcomed back to a closed Republican Senate luncheon with a loud standing ovation” after admitting his involvement with an escort service run by the DC Madam. However, Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID) — who faced charges of “lewd” sexual conduct in a men’s public restroom — faced calls to resign.

Yglesias

Endgame

By Matthew Yglesias on Jun 23, 2009 at 6:13 pm

The nonstop rain is gone, the unbearable humidity has arrived:

— Ezra Klein’s health care reform predictions (I think he’s wrong; will discuss later).

— Postcards from the future of reading.

— Wife-as-slave.

— Mass layoffs still happening at a massive rate.

— Key rival of the Pakistani Taliban now dead.

— New EPA analysis says Waxman-Markey will lower electrical bill.

Song of the day: The Sounds’ anti-American screed “Living in America”.

Politics

Rep. Neugebauer: ‘I Don’t Know’ If Obama Is A Citizen

By Lee Fang on Jun 23, 2009 at 5:50 pm

Rep. Bill Posey’s (R-FL) bill aimed at casting doubt over the citizenship status of President Obama appears to be gaining momentum within the Republican Party. The bill would require candidates for President to supply their birth certificates to the Federal Elections Commission to be eligible to run. Placating fringe elements of the right-wing movement who refuse to believe that President Obama was born in America, Posey himself has refused to say if he believes that the President was born in Hawaii.

Though initially it appeared he had little support, Posey eventually gained Rep. John Culberson (R-TX), Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-TX), Rep. Robert Goodlatte (R-VA), and Rep. John Carter (R-TX) as cosponsors. Last week, Rep. John Campbell (R-CA) also signed on as a sponsor of the bill, while Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) said that he would support the bill if it reaches the Senate.

Speaking to the Texas-based Chad Hasty radio show yesterday, Neugebauer explained his support for the “birther” movement:

Q: So you believe the President is a US citizen?

NEUGEBAUER: You know I don’t know. I’ve never seen him produce documents that would say one way or another.

Listen here:

Of course, Obama was born in America and his birth certificate is widely available on the Internet. In response to an avalanche of conspiracy theories fabricated largely by Fox News and various right-wing media outlets, FactCheck.org has extensively researched the issue and provided Obama’s birth announcement in the Honolulu Advertiser, a copy of the certificate with a raised seal, and the stamp of Hawaii state registrar Alvin T. Onaka.

But the truth has not deterred radicals like Posey and Neugebauer from attempting to cast Obama as some sort of illegitimate foreigner. World Net Daily, a conservative site highly supportive of Posey’s efforts, has begun fund raising to place billboards around the country questioning Obama’s citizenship.

Posey claims other congressmen have wished him “good luck” with his legislation, but have yet to sign on.

Yglesias

The Other Energy Bill

By Matthew Yglesias on Jun 23, 2009 at 5:26 pm

The whole climate/energy issue is getting strikingly little attention lately, and what attention it has gotten from the left has tended to focus on the imperfections in the Waxman-Markey bill or the depredations of secessionist Minnesota Representative Collin Peterson. But lurking in CAP/AF Supreme Leader John Podesta’s new statement urging progressives to push for House approval of Waxman-Markey is the observation that there’s probably a bigger problem to worry about:

Passing this bill is the first arduous step toward energy transformation. Senate passage of similar legislation will be more difficult, and the Senate Energy Committee is off to an inauspicious beginning by passing an energy bill that would do little to boost investments in renewable electricity. The bill would allow oil drilling in an area only 45 miles off the Florida Gulf Coast and worsen global warming by lifting the prohibition against the federal government purchase of oil from Canadian tar sands, which produce twice as much greenhouse gas pollution as regular oil. The Senate bill is weak, toothless, and unacceptable, and it must be improved before it passes.

It’s almost never a smart idea to worry about the shortcomings of House legislation. Whatever happens, the Senate always makes it worse.

Security

Barney Frank: GOP Thinks $2 Billion F-22 Project Is Funded By Monopoly Money

By Ali Frick on Jun 23, 2009 at 4:59 pm

Barney Frank at his deskLast week, over the objections of Defense Secretary Robert Gates and the Obama administration, the House Armed Services Committee restored funding for the basically useless F-22 fighter jet, in the process stripping funding for nuclear waste cleanup efforts. Last night, Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) filed an amendment to restore the waste cleanup funds and eliminate the money for the F-22. The move came after months of Republicans issuing dire warnings about the consequences of suspending the F-22 program: Frank Gaffney, for example, declared it would lead to “diminished military capability, emboldening enemies, and alienating our friends.”

On a press call hosted by the Center for American Progress Action Fund this afternoon, Frank pointed out Republicans’ hypocrisy in railing against the deficit while simultaneously funding a $2 billion air force jet that has never once flown a mission in Afghanistan or Iraq. Frank said so-called deficit hawks act as though the Pentagon is funded with “Monopoly money”:

I am of course struck that so many of my colleagues who are so worried about the deficit apparently think the Pentagon is funded with Monopoly money that somehow doesn’t count.

Frank also dismissed concerns that eliminating the F-22 will cost jobs:

These arguments will come from the very people who denied that the economic recovery plan created any jobs. We have a very odd economic philosophy in Washington: It’s called weaponized Keynesianism. It is the view that the government does not create jobs when it funds the building of bridges or important research or retrains workers, but when it builds airplanes that are never going to be used in combat, that is of course economic salvation.

Listen to it:

Indeed, conservatives declare that canceling the F-22 would result in thousands of lost jobs. However, as Center for American Progress Senior Fellow Lawrence Korb pointed out on the call, the administration has also ramped up production of the F-35, which is produced at many of the same facilities — and by the same workers — as the F-22.

Frank called the F-22 fight an important “test” for the Obama administration’s efforts to cut wasteful military spending. “If we cannot hold the line on this, then it’s very bad news for trying to hold down any kind of excesses in military spending,” he said.

Climate Progress

NASA’s James Hansen arrested in protest on mountaintop removal

By Joe Romm on Jun 23, 2009 at 4:50 pm

I’ll be happy to forward any comments readers have to Hansen.

Two years ago, the nation’s top climate scientist wrote, “It seems to me that, as yet, it is difficult to use actions of our government as grounds for civil disobedience, however egregiously stupid those actions are” (see Hansen on “civil disobedience”).  But like all of us, his positions have evolved over time.

Author Jeff Biggers reports at HuffingtonPost:

UPDATE: 2:30 EST: 94-year-old Ken Hechler, the legendary West Virginia congressman and coal miner hero who has been battling mountaintop removal since 1971 was arrested in a non-violent protest with NASA’s celebrated climate scientist James Hansen, actress Daryl Hannah, Michael Brune, the executive director of Rainforest Action Network, and Goldman Prize winner Judy Bonds. Vietnam veteran Bo Webb, and dozens of other coalfield residents were arrested by crossing onto the property of leading mountaintop removal coal mining company, Massey Energy–purposely trespassing to protest the destruction of mountains immediately above the Coal River Valley community.

In the face of recent Obama administration actions to regulate and not abolish mountaintop removal, which has wiped out 500 mountains and destroyed historic communities, the action launched a yearlong national campaign to bring mountaintop removal to an end.

“I am not a politician; I am a scientist and a citizen,” said Dr. James Hansen. “Politicians may have to advocate for halfway measures if they choose. But it is our responsibility to make sure our representatives feel the full force of citizens who speak for what is right, not what is politically expedient. Mountaintop removal, providing only a small fraction of our energy, should be abolished.”

Hansen just wrote “A Plea To President Obama: End Mountaintop Coal Mining,” in which he said:

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Yglesias

Car Fatalities in America

By Matthew Yglesias on Jun 23, 2009 at 4:43 pm

One story you’re not going to see leading tomorrow’s newspaper is “97 dead in fatal car accidents.” And yet in 2007, this country saw 37,284 people die in car wrecks. That averages out to 97 per day—much more than the seven people whose death in yesterday’s Metro crash has acquired so much coverage today. Obviously in part that’s because driving is much more popular than transit. Still, according to the Census Bureau 87.7 percent of people get to work either by driving alone or in car pools, while 4.7 percent take transit. That’s about 18 times more driving than transit usage. By contrast, 14 times more people die in car wrecks on an average day than died on the rare day that anyone died in a train crash. On a typical day, of course, the United States has zero train-related fatalities.

Long story short, investments in mass transit would have substantial public health benefits. And, indeed, since car wrecks disproportionately affect teenagers and young adults the impact in QALYs of even moderate reductions in automobile usage would be enormous. The good news about this, however, is that the death rate per 100 million VMT has been declining in recent years:

death-rate

This is rarely discussed, but the consequence is that 1,000 fewer people died in car wrecks in 2007 than died in 1994 even though total vehicle miles traveled increased from 2,358 billion to 3,030 billion. That’s a huge gain for the country.

Climate Progress

President Obama urges passage of Waxman-Markey: “I believe that this legislation is extraordinarily important for our country.”

By Joe Romm on Jun 23, 2009 at 4:30 pm

This week, the House of Representatives is moving ahead on historic legislation that will transform the way we produce and use energy in America. This legislation will spark a clean energy transformation that will reduce our dependence on foreign oil and confront the carbon pollution that threatens our planet.

So said President Obama in the opening remarks of his press conference today.  He made his strong pitch for passage of the climate bill after discussing the dramatic situation in Iran — but before discussing healthcare.  He continued:
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