Sen. Grassley Signals Votes Now There for Energy Bill

[salin]

salin's comments: I have been following these items (re: energy bill) since before the last vote. There is still a great deal of effort going into trying to get this bill called and voted on early next year. There are two reasons this seems politically expedient for the GOP. First - the court ordered opening of some of Cheney's Energy Task force papers has been delayed for a Supreme Court Hearing and it has long been hoped to get the bill through before the full role of industry is disclosed. Second - I believe the energy sector was the largest singly industry donating to the Bush election (in 2000), and Bush etal have not yet delivered on that money. Being able to demonstrate huge returns for money donated will keep (or escalate) that money to pour in, not just for Bush but for the RNC and republican candidates. If they can't get it through, when the control congress AND the White House, the money might not be seen as quite a good investment considering the level of donations.

Sen. Grassley Signals Votes Now There for Energy Bill

From Pro Farmer

Roger Bernard

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is signaling that votes are there for Senate passage of the omnibus energy bill. Contacts advise that Grassley told an meeting of corn and soybean producers in Ames, Iowa, Tuesday night that two lawmakers who voted against cloture on the energy bill were now going to vote in favor.

According to contacts, Grassley said that Sen. John Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) and Daniel Inouye (D-Hi.) were now going to vote for cloture.

more (very short item): http://www.agweb.com/news_show_news_article.asp?file=AgNewsArticle_200312171324_3636&articleid=104117&newscat=WA

[madfloridian]

1. That is a shame. They just give up, don't they.

Wonder if the eminent domain for power companies is still in it? That will be a true eye-opener for all if it is.

[salin]

4. To my understanding and reading... it is ALL still in there:

Eminent domain on behalf of power companies.

Further deregulation (ending PUHCA - and allowing more ease for Enron type price manipulation).

Taking regulatory power away from states and giving to FERC (who even when in possession of documents that demonstrated California market manipulation - refused to see it for months and let the situation grow much worse due it FERC inaction.)

Drilling in Anwr.

Opening more park land (and subsidizing costs) to drilling/mining.

Opening the door to off-shore drilling in Coastal Areas.

A Price Tag that increased from a whopping 19 Billion to 31 Billion in the last week as it added more and more Pork to buy Senators' votes.

Very little incentive for research and development of renewable/alternative energy sources.

And lots of other goodies.

[NewJerseyDem]

6. There's no drilling in ANWR (n/t)

[salin]

10. In the proposed bill?

I believe it is there - just a smaller portion than had originally been planned. They played a lot of "now its in.." and "now its out" with the bill when it was being redrafted in conference committee (where the repubs worked with industry representatives while they locked elected democratic members out of the meetings.)

In the end, I believe, not only is there some drilling in the region... but the controversy was no longer the drilling... but instead which proposed pipeline would be used to pump it to the lower 48 including one through canada - and something about including price supports related to one of the two pipeline options.

[NewJerseyDem]

13. I'm pretty sure it was stripped out

There are building a pipeline but I believe that is not for ANWR but areas that are currently being drilled. If ANWR was allowed then I am sure that it would be easily filibustered. Several senators who supported the bill would not vote for a bill with that provision in it so they stripped it out.

Also, I got this off the Sierra Club's website which makes no specific mention of ANWR so I can assume that it isn't in there or they would mention it.

http://ohio.sierraclub.org/tecumseh/energybill.htm

Some of the worst provisions of the bill include:
* Making oil and gas drilling the dominant use of our public lands.
* Weakening the Clean Air Act and making it easier for polluters to dirty our air for longer.
* Exempting damaging oil and gas activities from the Clean Water and Safe Drinking Water Acts.
* Letting MTBE (a gasoline additive known to pollute drinking water) manufacturers off the hook for cleaning up their own messes, and saddling local communities with a $29 billion cleanup cost.
* Giving billions of dollars to the polluting coal and nuclear industries instead of focusing more resources on cleaner renewable energy like wind and solar power.

[salin]

16. You appear to be correct... you may find this link as interesting

as I have... it is the minority energy committee in the Senate - the links are press releases from the time period during the republican "lockout" (when the locked dems on the conference committee out while they consulted with industry lobbyists to craft the new bill.)

http://energy.senate.gov/news/news_dem_bydate.cfm

Fascinating. At the top of the page (most recent, chronologoically) are a compilation of editorials about the legislation from around the country. This bill had so many awful things in it - that there were a couple of things that were bound to push to outrage nearly every region of the country.

[goobergunch]

2. Has anybody come out to challenge this?

If it is true, then Earth has lost a major battle. :puke:

[Freddie Stubbs]

22. Tom Daschle has done a lot of work on this

[Robbien]

23. Then why did he come out and support it?

His support almost torpedoed the filibuster. Oh yeah, ethanol and votes (plus a lined pocket).

[La_Serpiente]

3. WHATT!!!!

MY SENATOR IS GOING TO VOTE FOR THE BILL!!! I AM CALLING HIM UP RIGHT NOW!!!!!

[salin]

5. Not necessarily lined up to vote for it... but to vote against Cloture

(ending fillibuster)... which in essence, in this case, is voting for it. Yes... time to get on the phone!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[La_Serpiente]

7. I just called his office right now

and the staff didn't know how he was going to vote on it. I left a message saying that this is a pork-laden bill that should not even pass Congress.

[salin]

11. May many others follow your lead.

Let him know that his vote to keep the fillibuster going... is doing his state and his country a great service.

[SaveElmer]

8. Spineless Democrats cave again

They never learn...

[Robbien]

9. It is not that they are spineless

It is because they have been promised some of the pork.

[0007]

12. 'Tis kind of hard these days to tell the difference between the two partys

[Robbien]

15. I thought it sad that when trying to come up with a list of good

democratic congressmen, the posters in the thread the other day could only list about a dozen.

[salin]

18. Take a look at the link I put above

it is smartly done by the minority committee (energy) in the Senate.

Good use of documentation and information. Literally this bill was changing overnight - while the dems were locked out and the republicans rewriting the entire bill - things were flying in and out of the bill and barely being leaked. This appears to show some good information gathering/dissemination on the behalf of the senate democrats. Including the write up just as the 1000+ bill was released - when they were breaking for the weekend - and an interesting critique when they returned after the weekend just a few days later.

The odds were stacked against them strategically. But the pulled off the block.

Viewing this makes me feel a little better about the whole thing.

I just don't know how to get the heads up - this item (I am on a news alert list that sent this item to me) - isn't likely to get wide play - and folks are leaving for the Holidays. The word has to get out that Sen. Grassley has claimed that these two are likely to change their vote on Cloture, and that their votes along with Senator Frist - will ensure the passage of this awful bill.

[xxqqqzme]

14. do the idiot dems

have a list of things 2 give squatter to campaign w/? or R they just doing it out of generosity?

[buddhamama]

17. Drilling in the Artic was a ploy to distract from

the larger, more dangerous provisions in the Bill.

we have to get to work on stopping this.

:kick:

[tlcandie]

19. Did they consult the Indians about this? They usually get screwed

when the government starts interferring with their lands and lives :(

Bingaman Plan Would Boost Energy Development on Indian Lands

http://energy.senate.gov/news/dem_release.cfm?id=190420

A part of this nice STEALTH package

[salin]

20. Thing is so big... I never saw that provision...

I would be very interested in hearing about Native American responses to this proposal.

[dusty64]

21. I smell something here.

Why tip their hands about this and give us time to pressure these Senators to do the right thing. I don't get it but intend to contact these guys anyway. It wouldn't hurt to get in touch with ALL Senators that seem reasonable.

[salin]

24. I am not sure that they intend to do so... note the source

an agricultural news source - not picked up by major news sources. I received it because I get new notices (alerts) on anything on the energy bill (through google news alerts). Looks like the item is more of an inhouse item (pander to those to whom monies might flow or be stimied.) If this makes it into mainstream news, then I would agree that it might be an indication of another strategy. At first blush, however, it looks like campaigning to a favored group (for a senator from an agricultural area)... that tips the hand prematurely - and indicates a strategy that might include fast movement (if the are correct that they have these two additional votes that are needed to end a fillabuster) in the early moments of next session.

[dusty64]

25. Any indication that

the MTBE provision is being removed? I think that was the main reason many opposed this. I good time to contact our Senators and get this rotten bill killed.

[salin]

26. I am not sure.... but I don't know how much they can alter it

without having to start over - or at least go back to conference committee (can they do that once it passes in the house?)

My understanding of the process:

Bill (in some form) must pass both the House and the Senate (has happened)

Bill goes to a "conference committee" with representatives from the committees that held hearings on the bills in the senate and the house. Generally they are bipartisan committees (this one was - but was heavily weighted to GOP even though the margins for majority in both houses of congress are slim) which hammer out differences in the bills and broker compromises... the point is to make the bill likely pass by addressing the big blocking points. Note: the GOP in congress have started to hold "conference committees" of republicans only, locking elected democrats out (effectively disenfranchising almost half of the population)... they then give the democrats about 48 hours to review the entire legislation and pass it out of committee (since the democrats don't have a majority on the committee they can't block it). In the energy bill... they scrapped the two bills that passed the house and senate and started over (just the republicans) there were many reports that industry representatives were drafting entire sections of the bill, while elected democrats were blocked from the process... anyhow - back to the process:

Then both the House and the Senate must pass the same exact form of the legislation (that comes out of conference). The conference bill has passed the House not the Senate.

I believe that the senate must pass the exact same (already negotiated) Conference bill with no changes. Any wheeling and dealing has to happen elsewhere (likely to have happened in that HUGE omnibus budget/spending bill.)

The only way to get the sticky MTBEs out (a provision that both loses some votes and secures others) would be for the entire bill to go back to conference committee - and I don't know that this can happen once the conference bill has passed on the houses of Congress.

Once passed it goes to the president for signature.