The Countertop Chronicles

and Harry Reid (D-NV) was the Majority Leader, and Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) ran the Energy Committee, and Barbara Boxer (D-CA) ran the Environment and Public Works Committee.

Apparently, at least according to Thomas Freidman and the NY Times, I was wrong.

Well, no, not exactly. He does acknowledge they run things, albeit only in the briefest of senses.

No question, it’s great news that the Democrat-led Senate finally stood up to the automakers

but then he says this . . .

and to the Michigan senators, and said, “No more — no more assisted suicide of the U.S. auto industry by the U.S. Congress. We’re passing the first bill since 1975 that mandates an increase in fuel economy.”

Those “Michigan Senators?” That would be Debbie Stabenow and Carl Levin. Oh, by the way, they are both Democrats.

There are other things that make the Senate energy effort ugly. Senate Republicans killed a proposed national renewable electricity mandate that would have required utilities to produce 15 percent of their power from wind, solar, biomass and other clean-energy sources by 2020. Twenty-three states already have such mandates. No matter. Making it national was too much for the Republicans.

Yes, it was all the Republicans. The bill passed with overwhelming bi-partisan support, but its entirely the fault of the Republicans that a quixotic effort to generate more energy than a number of minor sources could ever generate failed. I guess by Freidman’s reasoning then, its all the Democrats fault that a truly greenhouse gas free energy source - Nuclear - was not included (not to mention that if it was, this provision would have passed).

And the Senate, thanks again to the Republicans, also squashed a Democratic proposal to boost taxes on oil and gas companies that would have raised some $32 billion for alternative fuel projects.

You got that? thanks to the Republicans we aren’t going to be forced to pay more (significantly more) for gasoline. How the heck did this paragraph get through the speakpolice at the Times.

An effort by Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota to legislate a national reporting (“carbon counter”) system to simply measure all sources of greenhouse gas emissions, which would enable a cap-and-trade system to work if we ever passed one, also got killed by Republicans.

Yes, the Republicans - the minority party - were able to kill this singlehandly without any fault lying on the part of Democrats. Here’s some inside baseball for you - Klobuchar (a freshman Democrat) is a nice enough lady but she has some of the most inept staff in the entire Senate. If the Democrats were serious about doing this, they would have had someone else (anyone else with a different staff) handle the details here.

So call your House member — especially the Republicans. If you don’t, some lobbyist will.

Yep. I hope Freidman wastes his time calling Republicans. I’ll be sitting in John Dingell’s office (that would be the Democrat Chair and the House Energy and Commerce Committee) except for the 2 evenings I am spending with him at dinner this week (not to mention having ate breakfast next to him and his wife this morning at McLean Family Restaurant).