Original Author:
jer45y@gmail.com (James Rowen)
The AP reports that 30 new, traditional coal-burning plants are moving forward across the country, cementing coal's primacy in electrical power generation.
This is a shocking state of affairs given what we know about the effect of coal mining and combustion on land and water resources, greenhouse emissions, air quality, public health, and a changing climate worldwide.
It's unconscionable that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid pulled the climate and energy bill from consideration, orphaning the previously passed House bill and giving a shameful victory to traditional energy lobbies.
The public is far ahead of many politicians in its support for alternative and clean energy generation.
According to Politico, Sen. Jeff Bingaman said that he doesn't think that any major bill -- including an energy bill --
will pass the Senate before the November elections. In other words, Democrats and Republicans will be going to war at the ballot boxes with the bills that have passed not the bills they wish had or hadn't passed.
"I think the Republicans are reluctant to support anything that might result in another signing ceremony between now and the election," the chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee told POLITICO after a Mexican lunch [in Carlsbad] with Rep. Harry Teague and other local Democrats.
The piece also says that New Mexico's other Senator, Tom Udall, is lobbying Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, to include a renewable energy standard in an energy bill.
An energy bill was widely thought to have a better chance of passing after the BP oil spill. But, as with many other pieces of legislation, the gummed up works of the Senate due to Republican obstruction makes that a near impossibility.
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