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Stories tagged with “Mark Begich”

Climate Progress

Begich: As The Arctic Melts, Let’s Drill, Baby, Drill

By Brad Johnson on Jan 12, 2011 at 4:20 pm

Yesterday, Sen. Mark Begich (D-AK) said that the rapid warming of the Arctic because of oil pollution means that more Arctic drilling should commence. Begich was responding to the presidential oil spill commission’s report, which recommended new drilling around Alaska, subject to stronger standards. The Democratic senator from the state most changed by global warming pollution used the commission’s report to emphasize his desire for more “Arctic development“:

As many of us have been saying for years, more resources and research are needed for Arctic development as warming temperatures make far north resources more accessible.

“Producing the enormous energy resources available within our borders is vital for our economic and national security, but we must develop these resources in a safe and environmentally responsible manner,” Begich continued.

Like the rest of the nation, the future of Alaska is already unsafe because of global warming, as Begich himself has explained. “We are feeling its near-term effects far more than the residents of any other state,” wrote Begich in a March 2010 letter, “including retreating sea ice, rapidly eroding shorelines, thawing permafrost, ocean acidification, and changing fish and wildlife migration patterns.” Since then, the world has continued to rapidly heat up, making 2010 the warmest year on record. National security experts are worried about global warming pollution’s impact on everything from spread of disease to displaced people.

The now-melting Arctic permafrost contains over 1.5 trillion tons of frozen carbon, about twice as much carbon as now contained in the atmosphere. The warming Arctic Ocean similarly contains vast reserves of methane. If the thaw continues and creates a feedback loop of Arctic greenhouse emissions, unimaginable global catastrophe will ensue. Apparently without irony, Begich proposes to accelerate that process by further extracting fossil fuels that are buried below the ocean floor, in the name of “economic and national security.”

The Wonk Room contacted Begich’s office to ascertain what the senator believes is a “safe and environmentally responsible manner” to extract fossil fuels made available by global warming, but has not yet received a response.

Health

1099 Issue Moves Forward: Democrats Introducing New Offsets

By Igor Volsky on Sep 17, 2010 at 3:00 pm

Since the last two attempts to fix the 1099 provision in the health law failed, Democrats are planning to introduce several measures that would repeal the entire reporting requirement — despite the broad agreement that sole proprietors are not paying their fair share of taxes. The crux of the argument is how to offset the estimated $17 billion that the extra reporting was estimated to have brought it.

Democrats have introduced several options:

- SEN. MARK BEGICH’s (D-AK) AMENDMENT: Repeal entire reporting requirement and makes up for the revenue (approximately $17 billion) by using unspent stimulus funds. But as Pat Garofalo explains, there are about $280 billion in stimulus spending that haven’t been paid out. “But much of the money has already been allocated, including $65 billion in funding for tax breaks, which are intentionally going out the door a little bit at a time.” Therefore, “canceling unspent stimulus funds would mean increasing taxes on the middle class.”

- HOUSE DEMS: Measures would repeal the reporting requirement and make up for the shortfall by “changing the inheritance tax (which is likely to get some GOP support) or a tax on carried interest (which is likely to be opposed by nearly all Republicans and some moderate Dems).” Garofalo is actually really excited about that latter offset.

- GOP RECALL PETITION: Rep. Dan Lungren (R-CA) is circulating a discharge petition to force a vote on his amendment to repeal the 1099 provision. The petition has 93 signatures.

POLITICO’s Pule suggests that these early difficulties in identifying adequate offsets bode poorly for the GOP’s repeal effort. If they want to repeal the entire health care law, Republicans would have to make up for the billions of dollars in deficit reductions; agreeing on set of uniform pay fors will prove challenging. In fact, beyond the deficit problem, repealing the health care law will also create problems in the Medicare program and continue the upward trajectory of health care spending (the health care law begins to bend the health care cost surve beginning in 2015). Expect all of this to cause major headaches for conservatives as their base holds them to their repeal pledge and watch as they turn to defunding the measure instead.

Yglesias

Begich After All

By Matthew Yglesias on Nov 18, 2008 at 9:41 pm

542389539_cc186cc1eb_1.jpg

Of all the Election Day results, Ted Stevens’ re-election in Alaska was probably the one that surprised me most. Except now the recount’s done and it seems that Stevens has lost. It’s a pretty earth-shattering event in Alaska politics, as Stevens has been in office for almost the entirety of Alaska’s time as a state and they haven’t sent a Democrat to congress in decades.

Given the overall nature of Alaska politics it seems unlikely that Begich will be an especially reliable progressive vote. Liberals have basically no leverage in the state and natural resource extractors who tend not to take a very enlightened view of things are vital to the local economy. Still, Stevens was quite the bad actor so almost anything would be progress.

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