If Senate Republicans block the energy bill pushed through the House by Democrats yesterday, or if President Bush vetoes it, they may end up making matters worse for themselves -- and better for everyone else.
Alexis posted yesterday on the blockbuster energy bill, which would require cars to get 35 miles per gallon of gasoline, utilities to produce 15% of their energy from renewable sources and fossil fuel companies to shell out $21 billion in new taxes and lost subsidies. It passed the House because of support from Democrats, but its future in the Senate and on President Bush's desk looks bleak.
That this long-anticipated push for sane energy policy could be defeated worried Alexis. "With scientists around the world continuing to expose unforeseen and disturbing impacts on our world because of atmospheric carbon accumulation, moral victories will no longer cut it," he wrote. But here's another way of looking at it: if Republicans want to block the bill, let them. A little more than a year from now,
Democrats will probably control the White House and Congress -- and whatever energy policy they draft then will be far tougher (and, from my perspective, far better.)
I'm reminded of an interview I did earlier this year with Whitman
College environmental law professor Phil Brick. "If you're an oil or auto company executive, who would you like to sign a bill -- George
Bush, or an unknown?"
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