Hot Air On Global Warming

Tom Friedman today in the New York Times (continuing my “stupid pundit parade” from yesterday)…

Neither the White House nor the Democratic Party seems to grasp that the public and business communities are miles ahead of them on (global warming).

How interesting that Friedman chooses not to assign blame to the happily-now-departed 109th Republican Congress, which did nothing to address our oil addiction that contributes to the greenhouse gasses that are slowly suffocating life on this planet.

Well then, I think it’s time for a little history lesson, don’t you?

12/6/2001

Senate Democrats offered an alternative yesterday to a Republican plan to allow drilling in an Alaskan wildlife refuge and instead called for more energy conservation and stricter fuel mileage standards for cars and sport utility vehicles.

"Today, we are introducing a comprehensive, balanced energy plan that will strengthen our economy, protect our environment and provide energy security for our nation for decades to come," Senate Leader Tom Daschle told reporters.

Daschle plans to have the Senate debate the legislation when lawmakers return from their holiday recess in January and hopefully vote on the measure by mid-February.
Instead of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as Republicans favor, Democrats sought a different route to boosting domestic production.

Their bill would provide funds to hire more government workers to clear a backlog of applications from energy firms that want to drill on millions of acres of federal lands and offshore waters already open to exploration.

…

Other provisions in the Senate Democrats' bill would:

* Triple the amount of electricity generated from renewable energy sources, like solar and wind power, by 2020;

* Streamline regulations to relicense hydroelectric dams;

* Allow alternative fuel vehicles to use rush-hour lanes normally reserved for cars carrying several passengers;

* Increase federal funds by $3.4 billion to help low income families pay their energy bills; and

* Study building a new electric rail system for Amtrak between Washington and Boston.

9/1/2003

“They made us an offer we couldn’t refuse--the Democratic energy bill we passed last year,” said Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-South Dakota). “We’d much rather go into conference with a Democratic vehicle than what was going to pass at the end of this debate as the Republican bill.”

“In our fondest dreams, we never thought we’d be able to pass a Democratic bill in a Republican Congress,” Daschle added.

But Senate Energy Committee Chairman Pete Domenici (R-New Mexico) was confident the gambit would ultimately work in the Republicans’ favor. “The reason I’m happy is because I’ll be rewriting that bill,” said Domenici. “We’ll write a substantially different bill.”

8/15/2005

(Colorado’s Ken) Salazar, a Democrat who won his Senate seat in the November 2004 election, spoke to about 75 people at Centennial Hall. He praised the new energy bill for the incentives it establishes for energy conservation and alternative energy sources. He said the incentives are strong enough to begin to slow and then reverse the widening gap between domestic energy production and demand.

However, he said the original Senate version of the bill, ultimately modified by the House of Representatives and the White House, would have done more in the coming decade to decrease the nation's dependence on foreign energy.

"We don't have the right kind of leadership in Washington. That's my point of view," Salazar said. "If we had courage in Washington, and that includes the president, we could have done more."

Call me crazy, but it looks like there’s a pattern here, Tom. The Dems craft legislation doing the right things on energy, and then the legislation gets scuttled by the Repugs.

To be fair to Friedman, he has been beating the drum on this issue for a little while now, and in the past, he has affixed blame where it belongs. But he is wrong to suggest that the Dems are behind on this issue.

At least give Harry Reid and company a year or two to hammer something out (and crafting legislation will be a lot tougher in the Senate with its razor-thin Dem majority than the House) and then start bitching at them if you don’t like the result, OK?

Update: By the way, speaking of energy, click here to find out how you can take the lead on this issue along with the rest of the John Edwards For President Campaign.

Update 1/20 Freidman has been wrong on other high-profile issues also, as we know (smartass).