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Green

Senate Dems Tell House GOP To Stop Polluting Middle-Class Tax Bill With Poison Pills

By Brad Johnson on Feb 8, 2012 at 2:30 pm

In December, House Republicans attached poisonous riders on the Keystone XL pipeline and mercury-pollution rules to a tax-cut bill for working families. Senate Democrats killed the mercury rider, which would have blocked the so-called Boiler MACT rules, and President Obama rejected the tar sands pipeline after that rider was signed into law. Now the House GOP has new versions of the same poison pills, but Senate Democrats are fighting back. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) told reporters in the Capitol Tuesday that he opposes both poison pills:

Instead of finding commonsense solutions, the Republicans are talking about things that have nothing to do with middle-income taxes — like the Keystone pipeline, rolling back regulations to keep our air safe and our water clean and pure. These tactics are stalling — more evidence the Republicans don’t want to extend this tax cut. They talk about extending it but simply are unwilling to do anything to make it a reality.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) agreed. “So we say to Speaker Boehner, instruct your conferees to drop the issue of Boiler MACT.”

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Economy

House To Pass Payroll Tax Cut Extension Today (Update)

By Amanda Peterson Beadle on Dec 23, 2011 at 9:45 am

The House is expected to pass the two-month payroll tax cut extension today, preventing taxes from increasing for millions of Americans on Jan. 1. The Senate approved the deal Friday morning. House Speaker John Boehner caved under the enormous pressure and dropped his opposition to the extension, telling reporters late Thursday that the House had reached a deal to pass the Senate’s two-month extension deal after minor modifications, according to the Washington Post:

The agreement resolved the last stalemate in a year of bitter congressional fighting that earned lawmakers their lowest approval ratings in recent memory.

In exchange for supporting the 60-day patch, Republicans secured minor face-saving concessions from Senate leaders, who had already passed a two-month deal on an overwhelming vote of 89 to 10. Senate leaders had balked at the House’s demand to restart talks over the holidays on a full-year extension of the tax cut.

The Senate agreed to make a technical change to the payroll tax reporting requirements, designed to lessen the burden on small businesses of implementing the two-month deal.

And Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) promised he would appoint a conference committee to take up negotiations after New Year’s Day on ways to pay for a full-year tax cut.

Both chambers will pass the plan by unanimous consent so long as no member shows up to voice opposition in person, which lets the deal pass even though most members have gone home. There was no opposition to the deal in the Senate Friday morning. The two-month extension gives House and Senate leaders time to negotiate for a yearlong extension after the holiday recess. “I am grateful that the voices of reason have prevailed,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said in a statement.

But so far, a few House freshmen have threatened to stop the deal. Freshman Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL) said he was “not yet sure” if he would protest the deal, and Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA) told CNN’s John King Thursday night, “I’m not so sure I’m not going to do that,” when asked if he’d drive to Washington, D.C. to stop the deal.

Boehner acknowledged the pressure he has felt, telling reporters Thursday that “I talked to enough members over the last 24 hours who say we don’t like the two-month extension and if you can get this fixed, why not do the right thing for the American people even if it’s not exactly what we want.”

Boehner received pressure from his own party — Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called on the House to pass the two month extension yesterday — as well as the public. After the White House asked people to say what $40 — the average amount an American worker would lose per paycheck without the extension — would mean to them, thousands of people responded on Twitter using the #40dollars hashtag.

Update

The House passed the extension deal by unanimous consent.

Update

After the House passed the deal, Reid named his conferees: Democratic Sens. Max Baucus (MT), Ben Cardin (MD), Jack Reed (RI) and Bob Casey (PA). House Democrats named their conferees before the House adjourned: Reps. Sandy Levin (MI), Xavier Becerra (CA), Chris Van Hollen (MD), Allyson Schwartz (PA), and Henry Waxman (CA).

Climate Progress

Harry Reid Blasts “Unsustainable and “Dirty” Keystone XL Pipeline in Letter to Hillary Clinton

By Stephen Lacey on Oct 21, 2011 at 12:47 pm

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is weighing in on Keystone XL, the controversial 1,700 mile pipeline that would bring carbon-intensive crude across the U.S. from Alberta’s tar sands to refineries in the Gulf Coast.

In a letter sent to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton earlier this month, Reid expressed concerns about the environmental impact of the project. The Washington Post reported on the October 5th correspondence:

“The proponents of this pipeline would be wiser to invest instead in job-creating clean energy projects, like renewable power, energy efficiency or advanced vehicles and fuels that would employ thousands of people in the United States rather than increasing our dependency on unsustainable supplies of dirty and polluting oil that could easily be exported,” Reid wrote.

Reid has been a strong supporter of clean energy and has maintained that support during a time of severe Congressional backlash against government incentives for the sector. But this is the first time he has publicly given his opinions on the Keystone XL Pipeline — a project that has united environmental activists and split the Democratic party.

Some Congressional Democrats have remained silent on the issue, waiting for the State Department to make a decision. Others have thrown their support behind the pipeline, which they say will create jobs and boost tax revenues.

Meanwhile, the environmental community is putting heavy pressure on the Obama Administration to delay or abandon Keystone XL, calling it “game over for the climate.” They’re also highlighting the immense conflicts of interest within the State Department and the proposed builder, TransCanada — pointing out that the agency outsourced the environmental review of the project to a TransCanada contractor.

Many see this as the ultimate test of the Obama Administration’s commitment to combating climate change. Harry Reid, one of the most powerful Democrats in Washington, appears to see it that way too.

Green

Reid Opposes Keystone XL Pipeline As Democrats Remain Divided Over TransCanada’s Plan

By Amanda Peterson Beadle on Oct 20, 2011 at 12:00 pm

With some labor unions on one side and environmentalists lobbying on the other, Democrats are still split over the massive Keystone XL pipeline TransCanada has proposed and are pressuring the White House on both sides. The State Department has overseen TransCanada’s permit application to build the pipeline and supports the project, but final approval rests with President Obama.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) weighed in for the first time on Oct. 5 in a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton questioning the 1,700-mile project that would stretch from Canada to the Gulf Coast:

“The proponents of this pipeline would be wiser to invest instead in job-creating clean energy projects, like renewable power, energy efficiency or advanced vehicles and fuels that would employ thousands of people in the United States rather than increasing our dependency on unsustainable supplies of dirty and polluting oil that could easily be exported,” Reid wrote.

But after the bankruptcy of Solyndra — a solar energy company — Stephen Brown, vice president of federal government affairs for oil refiner Tesoro, asked why Reid would even focus on renewable energy instead of oil. “It will come as a shock to the tens of thousands of professional skilled American refinery workers, many of whom are union members, that their jobs do not have the same cachet as politically correct ‘green jobs’ in Solyndra-like endeavors,” Brown said.

In contrast to Reid’s letter, 22 House Democrats sent a letter to Obama asking him to support the Keystone XL project because of the jobs it could create:

[T]he Keystone XL Pipeline will inject $20 billion of private sector investment into the American economy, create 20,000 direct jobs, spur the creation of 118,000 spin-off jobs, payout $5 billion in taxes to local counties over the project’s lifetime, bolster America’s energy security and strengthen our national security. [...] We are confident that the Department of State’s review process and the project operator’s commitment to employing well-trained union workers will yield the most appropriately routed, safest and environmentally sound pipeline in our nation.

Out of the entire House Democratic Caucus, 22 members is hardly a majority, and most who signed onto the letter are moderate Blue Dog Democrats. And the State Department estimates that the pipeline will create fewer jobs than TransCanada has estimated, with many being temporary positions. The environmental risks for a pipeline crossing the United States and Canada also could be much higher than previous assumed, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Previously, former Vice President Al Gore has pushed for Obama to block the pipeline, and Gov. Dave Heineman (R-NE) has said he opposes the pipeline because of the risk it would pose to one of his state’s major water supplies.

Yglesias

Reid Goes There: ‘Republicans Think That If The Economy Improves, It Might Help President Obama”

By Matthew Yglesias on Oct 12, 2011 at 11:30 am

Harry Reid, reflecting on the Senate GOP minority’s filibuster of a majority-backed American Jobs Act, offered a critique that I believe is new for him:

“Republicans think that if the economy improves, it might help President Obama,” Mr. Reid said. “So they root for the economy to fail and oppose every effort to improve it.”

I think Rick Perry’s infamous threats against Ben Bernanke really broke the seal on this. Perry said it would be treasonous for the Fed to enact new monetary stimulus to help Barack Obama. But how would monetary stimulus help Barack Obama? Well, it would help Obama if it helped the economy, but not otherwise. So it would be treasonous for Bernanke to help the economy because doing so would indirectly help Obama.

Most politicians have better message discipline than that, and most human beings have more advanced psychological mechanisms at their disposal for resolving cognitive dissonance. So I doubt that the GOP is sitting around in their caucus meetings chuckling about their “recession —> Obama electoral defeat” plan. At the same time, people have a way of aligning their thinking with their interests. So the GOP has succeeded in hurting the economy with premature fiscal austerity, hurting the economy with the debt ceiling panic, hurting the economy with letters opposing monetary stimulus, and now will of course also oppose efforts at expansionary fiscal policy. And why not? Less growth really is better for them.

Security

Reid Blocks Defense Authorization: Terror Provisions Like Indefinite Detention ‘Are Just Wrong’

By Ali Gharib on Oct 5, 2011 at 12:50 pm

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) blocked a vote on this year’s defense budget authorization act because of provisions in the bill that the Obama administration says will tie its hands when dealing with terrorism suspects. Reid explained his impending move on the Senate floor Monday before issuing a letter Tuesday to the Democratic chairman and ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee. On the floor Monday, Reid said:

But I also say, Mr. President, in its present form, I’m going to have some difficulty bringing this bill to the floor. It contains provisions relating to the detention of terrorism suspects that in the words of national security adviser John Brennan would be, and I quote, “disastrous. It would tie the hands of our counterterrorism professionals by eliminating tools and authorities that have been absolutely essential to their success.”

To show you how extremely important it is that we do something about these provisions in this bill that are just wrong, both the Judiciary Committee in the Senate and the Intelligence Committee in the Senate have asked for hearings on this provision in this bill.

Watch the video:

In a September speech, Brennan, a deputy national security adviser, decried any “rigid, inflexible approach” to terrorism that would stop the Obama administration from taking its “practical, flexible, results-driven approach that maximizes our intelligence collection and preserves our ability to prosecute dangerous individuals.”

A day after his floor comments, Reid sent a letter the Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin (D-MI) and Ranking Member John McCain (R-AZ) informing them that he didn’t intend to bring the National Defense Authorization Act to the floor until it was stripped of the detention provisions. In the letter, Reid objected to:

[T]he authorization of indefinite detention in section 1031, the requirement for mandatory military custody of terrorism suspects in Section 1032, and the stringent restrictions on transfer of detainees in Section 1033. [...]

I strongly believe that we must maintain the capability and flexibility to effectively apply the full range of tools at our disposal to combat terrorism. This includes the use of our criminal justice system, which has accumulated an impressive record of success in bringing terrorists to justice.

In his floor speech, Reid cited a compromise over last year’s National Defense Authorization Act, which originally included a repeal of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy on gays in the military. Republicans filibustered the authorization and Democrats relented, taking the DADT repeal out of the bill and agreeing to put it forward later as a separate vote. Reid asked that McCain take the same approach to the terrorism detention provisions in this year’s authorization.

Climate Progress

Harry Reid: I’m ‘Not Confident’ Congress Can Extend the Production Tax Credit for Wind

By Stephen Lacey on Sep 6, 2011 at 2:22 pm

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he’s “not confident” that Congress will be able to extend the production tax credit (PTC) for the wind industry this year.

In an interview with Climate Progress, Senator Reid (D-NV) lamented the breakdown of bi-partisan support for renewable energy, saying many conservative members of Congress were “making a concerted effort to thwart development” of clean energy.

When asked whether Congress would be able to pass even the most basic support mechanisms for renewable energy like the PTC, Reid answered: “I’m hopeful, but not confident we can get them passed.”

The PTC, which provides wind project owners 2.1 cents per kilowatt-hour of electricity produced, is a fundamental incentive for the industry. However, unlike permanent credits embedded in the tax code for oil and gas producers, the PTC is only extended every couple of years. That creates immense uncertainty in the sector in the lead-up to the expiration.

If the PTC expires, the wind industry would see a massive decline in installations, effectively choking one of the fastest-growing energy sectors in the country. During previous lapses in the tax credit, national installations fell by between 70% and 90%.

The PTC is set to expire at the end of 2012. Because it can take years to plan large wind farms, many projects are delayed or abandoned if a developer is unsure about completing the facility in time to qualify for tax credits.

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Climate Progress

World’s First Hybrid Solar-Geothermal Power Plant is Underway

By Stephen Lacey on Aug 30, 2011 at 12:34 pm

In 2009, the world’s largest geothermal developer, Ormat, moved into the solar market – using its power plant construction expertise to build solar PV and CSP plants in Israel.

And in the last couple of years, a number of CSP developers have partnered with natural gas and coal operators to create hybrid solar/fossil plants in an effort to lower the installed cost of solar and make fossil generation more efficient.

It was only a matter of time before we saw the hybrid geothermal-solar plant.

A group of business and policy leaders were in Las Vegas at the National Clean Energy Summit this morning announcing the groundbreaking of the world’s first solar-geothermal power plant – a 24-MW facility that will combine 80,000 polycrystalline PV modules with traditional hydrothermal technology.

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Climate Progress

Reid Preview: “We Need to Build on Our Clean Energy Achievements, Not Surrender Leadership to Other Countries.”

By Joe Romm on Aug 30, 2011 at 10:46 am

Click Here to Watch Clean Energy Summit Webcast Starting 9 am PST

Reid, Chu and Biden Kick Off the Day, Climate Progress Will Have Exclusive Interterviews


Politico opens its Morning Energy briefing:

TODAY’S MAIN EVENT: The big happening in energy this week is the fourth annual Clean Energy Summit today in Las Vegas, where Vice President Joe Biden, Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval, California Gov. Jerry Brown and Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire are headlining.

Senate majority leader Harry Reid released highlights from his opening remarks:

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NEWS FLASH

Watch Live Streaming of National Clean Energy Summit Tuesday |  

Despite getting hung up in Washington due to Hurricane Irene, we finally made it to Las Vegas for the fourth National Clean Energy Summit, a gathering of business and policy leaders to talk about the future of renewable energy, efficiency, transportation, and the intelligent grid.

We’ve got a great line-up of speakers tomorrow: Vice President Joe Biden; Energy Secretary Steven Chu; Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus; the Governors of California, Nevada and Washington; Federal Energy Regulatory Chairman John Wellinghoff; Nevada Senator Harry Reid; Center for American Progress President John Podesta, and many more.

Be sure to check out the live streaming of the event on Tuesday from 9 am to 5 pm. We’ll have roundtable discussions, speeches, and Q&A on all things clean energy.

This fall is a critical time for the future of renewable energy. As Congress looks to make deep cuts in spending on energy, we’ll be looking at how that will shape the sector over the coming years. Tune in to hear from top decision makers on how the policy and business environment may unfold.

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