[tsakach]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('aahala', 'I')'m in favor of the bill but believe it will be very expensive and really, really difficult to achieve.

The renewable portion as is, is about 9.5%. 7% or more of that
is hydro which isn't reasonably possible to expand much. So
about 2.5% will have to go to 12.5% in a dozen years.

[Leanan]

For those of you who haven't completely given up on politics...

You can get your input into the energy bill by posting your comments here:

http://www.theoildrum.com/node/2833

Congressional staffers will be reading.

The deadline is 5pm today.

[Tanada]

Well Gee Leann, no offense and I know all you volunteers are working free and all, but I never even saw this until 5:30 so no point in my adding any input.

Hopefully the staffers will have gotten some good intelligent responses without me and will take them to heart.

[Leanan]

Sorry. This info has been on the front page as a new story a couple of times already. It didn't occur to me until today to post it here, too.

[Tanada]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Leanan', 'S')orry. This info has been on the front page as a new story a couple of times already. It didn't occur to me until today to post it here, too.

[joe1347]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '
')
Senate energy bill: Tough fuel standards in, renewable package out
Zachary Coile, Chronicle Washington Bureau

Friday, December 14, 2007

The Senate took a huge step toward passage of the biggest increase in fuel economy standards for cars and trucks in three decades - but it came at a major cost for Democrats.

Backers of tougher legislation were forced to give up their plan to strip $21 billion in tax breaks, mostly to oil companies, and use the money to subsidize renewable energy lost by a single vote Thursday.

It was the second defeat for Democrats, after Senate Republicans, backed by the White House, blocked an effort to require utilities to get 15 percent of their power from renewable sources.

"Big oil and big coal succeeded in stripping out some very important parts of this bill," said Anna Aurilio, the Washington director of Environment America, the environmental arm of U.S. PIRG. "Nonetheless, it's still very important to get this fuel economy piece over the finish line."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... STTME4.DTL

[lorenzo]

The energy bill sucks.

It should have contained:

1. renewables
2. a forced transition to electric cars (not just better fuel economy, but the switch to electric)
3. incentives for carbon capture and storage (CCS) so that we can generate negative emissions bioenergy to power these cars


Instead, Americans get corn lobby ethanol (a criminal fuel). How sad. Americans must protest.

[Mechler]

What a farce! BTW I read that CAFE standards use mpg ratings that are up to 20% higher than what the EPA would report for a particular vehicle. So a car meeting the CAFE standard of 35 mpg might only get 28 mpg as rated by the EPA.

Lorenzo, you might be happy to know that of the 36 billion gallons of biofuels, 21 billion are supposed to come from non-corn sources.

It's sad how much industry can sway the government, a la the oil company subsidies that are untouched, the biofuel mandate, the lack of a renewable energy standard, etc. Oh, I'm sure joe sixpack was calling up their senators complaining about how those poor oil companies are getting a raw deal and we shouldn't take away their tax breaks.

Meanwhile, these dipshits can't pass a law revising the Alternative Minimim Tax. And $70 billion more dollars are headed to Iraq...

It all seems so hopeless.

Don't worry - the free market will save us.

[fireplaceguy]

This should be good news (kinda) since it at least indicates some dim awareness of the problem. Or does it?

Along with fuel economy mandates comes a mandate to increase ethanol production six-fold by 2022.

Pelosi, Reid and Bush, arm in arm to save us - who's cloning idiots, anyway?

Apparently as our last gasp, we're going to squander what's left of our topsoil and aquifers so we can burn food in our cars. On the bright side, several third-world countries may get a jump start on their die-off!

[Bas]

good news, that ethanol in 2020 will never be produced though.

[fireplaceguy]

Agreed, Bas - it probably won't - at least the full six-fold increased volume won't. Rest assured, though, that we'll do one hell of a lot of damage to topsoil and aquifers along the way! The dual distortions of farm subsidies and this new mandate guarantees that...

[dooberheim]

I read somewhere that to produce that much ethanol will require something like half of our corn crop? $8.00/box corn flakes and $12.00/lb steak anyone?

DK

[heroineworshipper]

More notable was that the headline was when congress passed it, not when Dubya signed it, because Hillary is still in congress.

[hayseed]

Here's a bit of sanity from media on the "energy" bill:

America: We're the new China!
Weak, gutless Democrats, sneering, oil-loving Republicans and cars that belch and shrug
By Mark Morford

As part of my ongoing effort to save my own soul and avoid repeatedly stabbing myself in the eye with a fork in screaming frustration, and also because it's Beltway politics and watching it too closely is akin to having your cerebral cortex raped by encephalitic trolls, I've only paid cursory attention to the massive, landmark energy bill that's right now passing like a painful gallstone through Congress and getting snagged here and gutted there and stripped of key provisions over here, all so Dubya won't veto it, given how it might be just too mean to his fat, piggish pals in Big Energy.

Besides, it's an energy bill. It's Congress. It's like saying "altar boys" and "the Vatican." What are the odds of something good coming of it?

But oh, there was a glimmer of promise. There was, for the briefest of time, the possibility of a shift, of progress, a bit of light at the end of the bleak, dank Bush tunnel, just enough to maybe let us raise our heads from this seven-year hole of misery and let a tiny drop of hope fall into the collective heart. The bastards.

There was, most notably, the Democrats' rather astounding provision that dared to rescind a rather disgusting $13.5 billion in corporate tax breaks enjoyed by Bush's oil cronies, basically a massive government handout to Exxon and Shell and the rest to keep them fat and happy and flush with even more billions in profit because heaven forfend they actually pay their fair share of the tax burden for keeping the nation hooked on its unbelievably destructive brand of heroin. ...

(Full URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f ... DTL&nl=fix)

[Pixie]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dooberheim', 'I') read somewhere that to produce that much ethanol will require something like half of our corn crop? $8.00/box corn flakes and $12.00/lb steak anyone?

DK

[TommyJefferson]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('fireplaceguy', 'T')his should be good news (kinda) since it at least indicates some dim awareness of the problem. Or does it?

[TommyJefferson]

You cry because government force was not applied in the way you desire, against whom you desire.

Disgusting.

[Twilight]

That's the whole point of democracy.

[fireplaceguy]

Well, I was right, and in the worst way. A relative in Iowa informs me that there is frenzied clear-cutting taking place nearby to create more farmland for corn. They pile up whole trees and burn them - don't even take the time to cut them up for firewood...

Dammit!

[WildRose]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('fireplaceguy', '
')
Apparently as our last gasp, we're going to squander what's left of our topsoil and aquifers so we can burn food in our cars. On the bright side, several third-world countries may get a jump start on their die-off!