Reid May Attach Oil Spill Measure onto Climate/Energy Bill

[Casino67]

Senatus:


Reid May Attach Oil Spill Measure onto Climate/Energy Bill

June 25, 2010 by senatus

http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/00HvgY11Dt37Y/610x.jpg

Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) “is planning a high-risk, high-stakes strategy for bringing climate and energy legislation to the floor ahead of the August recess,” POLITICO reports.

The gamble: yoking a bipartisan, fast-track measure to overhaul offshore drilling rules with a broad, contentious bill capping greenhouse gas emissions that otherwise would have almost no chance of passage on its own.

Reid’s own Democrats are mixed on the strategy for notching 60 votes. Some argue that public perception of fossil fuels in the wake of the BP oil spill will sway enough of the party’s swing votes and open Republicans to attack if they oppose the measure as their reelection campaigns head into the homestretch.

[…]

Thus far, Reid can’t count on all Democrats coalescing around this approach. Several say they are fearful that hitching a popular oil reform bill to a big, unwieldy climate plan will just sink legislation that could otherwise serve as a quick, easy and politically popular win.

The oil-related legislation:

Reid plans to build the floor package around a bill fast-tracked for approval next week in the Energy and Natural Resources Committee that would impose new safety and environmental rules and increase oversight of oil companies doing offshore exploration. Sens. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), chairman and ranking member on the committee, respectively, introduced the legislation together on Monday, with plans to amend it next week with more oil spill ideas from Sens. Menendez, Mark Udall (D-Colo.) and Scott Brown (R-Mass.). Interior Secretary Ken Salazar testified at a hearing Thursday that the underlying package was “a very good bill.”

Reid hasn’t “settled yet on whether to push for a sweeping cap on greenhouse gases that covers multiple sectors of the economy — including power plants, transportation fuels and energy-intensive manufacturers of products like glass, cement, and pulp and paper — or a more limited approach that would deal with only power plants.”

The Hill reports that Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) may be unwilling to join any talks on the bill.

The South Carolina senator candidly said now the ongoing Gulf oil spill precludes him from rejoining any such negotiation for months.

“I will work with the president, Democrats and Republicans to come up with an energy policy, but I’m not going to it in the middle of an oil spill when the political environment doesn’t favor what I want,” he told WVOC radio in South Carolina. “I’m not going to do it between now and November when the oil spill dominates the politics and headlines.”

[octex]

Lindsey Grahamnesty is barely better than his bunk mate McCain and the oily, slimey Harry Reid. .....All three need to be kicked aside at the first opportunity (this year for Reid and McCain; 2014 for Wimpy Graham).

 

The Obama, Reid and Pelosi attempts to push the Marxist agenda will intensify between now and January 2011, as they know they will not continue to control Congress as they do now after the November elections. Lame duck Dimocrats will try to force through every possible left wing bill they can before they have to leave office.

 

I only hope that the other side of the aisle has enough sense to gather some blue dog Dims and oppose all of the bills that increase spending or give more power to the regime and the Dims. People across America are suffering because of the harebrained schemes this regime has tried to push through as quickly as possible. ..OCTex