Stupid is as Stupid Does

Thanks for the lasting memory Dubya, anti-renewables GOP Senate dingleberries and our own Sen. Chuck Hagel.  You bloody nitwits!!

And the hand-wringing, gut-less, "But what can we do?" Democrats don't get a free ride.  Just the suggestion of filibuster has them running for the hills.  Instead, they should have the Republicans running for their Depends and some very long hard days trying to channel Strom Thurmond.  Harry Reid should be saying, "Want to filibuster?  Make my day." 

It's not like they're going to pass anything anyhow.  Might as well make them pay physically for the privilege of being obstructionists.

Congress Walks Out on Renewable Energy - US News & World Report - 14 Dec 07

"When Congress abandoned the tax part of its energy bill yesterday under pressure from the White House, lawmakers and the president may have sentenced some of the most ambitious clean-energy projects out there to a grim walk through the 'valley of death.'"

"...yesterday, under threat of a certain veto by President Bush, the Senate failed by one vote to pass the energy bill with a tax package. Facing an electorate angry about $3-per-gallon gasoline, the Senate abandoned the tax plan and passed an energy bill focused mainly on getting cars to get better gas mileage.

Extension of the clean energy production tax credit would have cost $6.22 billion over 10 years. Lest you think that the White House and Congress were merely being fiscally responsible, keep in mind the primary reason for the veto threat and legislative failure. They wanted to preserve $13.5 billion in tax breaks that Congress gave the oil industry in 2004 and 2005.

Oil gets to keep its tax breaks. New renewable energy projects face a walk, without Washington's support for now, through the finance valley of death."

Stupid is as Stupid Does

Thanks for the lasting memory Dubya, anti-renewables GOP Senate dingleberries and our own Sen. Chuck Hagel.  You bloody nitwits!!

And the hand-wringing, gut-less, "But what can we do?" Democrats don't get a free ride.  Just the suggestion of filibuster has them running for the hills.  Instead, they should have the Republicans running for their Depends and some very long hard days trying to channel Strom Thurmond.  Harry Reid should be saying, "Want to filibuster?  Make my day." 

It's not like they're going to pass anything anyhow.  Might as well make them pay physically for the privilege of being obstructionists.

Congress Walks Out on Renewable Energy - US News & World Report - 14 Dec 07

"When Congress abandoned the tax part of its energy bill yesterday under pressure from the White House, lawmakers and the president may have sentenced some of the most ambitious clean-energy projects out there to a grim walk through the 'valley of death.'"

"...yesterday, under threat of a certain veto by President Bush, the Senate failed by one vote to pass the energy bill with a tax package. Facing an electorate angry about $3-per-gallon gasoline, the Senate abandoned the tax plan and passed an energy bill focused mainly on getting cars to get better gas mileage.

Extension of the clean energy production tax credit would have cost $6.22 billion over 10 years. Lest you think that the White House and Congress were merely being fiscally responsible, keep in mind the primary reason for the veto threat and legislative failure. They wanted to preserve $13.5 billion in tax breaks that Congress gave the oil industry in 2004 and 2005.

Oil gets to keep its tax breaks. New renewable energy projects face a walk, without Washington's support for now, through the finance valley of death."

Too Cheap to Meter - Part Deux

Fifty billion?  No big problem.  After all, it only cost a little over 6 billion for Seabrook in the mid-1980s.

Don't Put Taxpayers on the Hook for High-Risk Nuclear Power - Salt Lake Tribune - 14 Dec 07

"A group of investment banks recently weighed in about the significant likelihood of delays and cost overruns in building nuclear power plants, telling the DOE, 'We believe these risks, combined with the higher capital costs and longer construction schedules of nuclear plants as compared to other generation facilities, will make lenders unwilling at present to extend long-term credit.'

So what was the nuclear industry's response?

It pressured lawmakers in the House and Senate to increase share of the government's liability for new loans. It even took the unusual step of having a Republican senator stall the nomination of the Bush administration's choice to head the powerful Office of Management and Budget until they secured as commitment that OMB would not object to the increased taxpayer risk the industry was proposing for the loan program.

But that still wasn't enough. One more obstacle stood in their way.

Under a law called the Federal Credit Reform Act, Congress is required to set an annual budget limits for loan programs to avoid cost over-runs. The industry successfully exempted their subsidies from this requirement in the current energy bill pending in Congress.

The nuclear industry sought this special treatment because, according to Rep. Pete Visclosky, D-Ind., the chairman of the appropriations subcommittee that set limits for energy programs, the nuclear industry's trade association was pushing for more than $50 billion in federal loan guarantees in the next two years."

Too Cheap to Meter - Part Deux

Fifty billion?  No big problem.  After all, it only cost a little over 6 billion for Seabrook in the mid-1980s.

Don't Put Taxpayers on the Hook for High-Risk Nuclear Power - Salt Lake Tribune - 14 Dec 07

"A group of investment banks recently weighed in about the significant likelihood of delays and cost overruns in building nuclear power plants, telling the DOE, 'We believe these risks, combined with the higher capital costs and longer construction schedules of nuclear plants as compared to other generation facilities, will make lenders unwilling at present to extend long-term credit.'

So what was the nuclear industry's response?

It pressured lawmakers in the House and Senate to increase share of the government's liability for new loans. It even took the unusual step of having a Republican senator stall the nomination of the Bush administration's choice to head the powerful Office of Management and Budget until they secured as commitment that OMB would not object to the increased taxpayer risk the industry was proposing for the loan program.

But that still wasn't enough. One more obstacle stood in their way.

Under a law called the Federal Credit Reform Act, Congress is required to set an annual budget limits for loan programs to avoid cost over-runs. The industry successfully exempted their subsidies from this requirement in the current energy bill pending in Congress.

The nuclear industry sought this special treatment because, according to Rep. Pete Visclosky, D-Ind., the chairman of the appropriations subcommittee that set limits for energy programs, the nuclear industry's trade association was pushing for more than $50 billion in federal loan guarantees in the next two years."