Reid Fuels Anxiety With Energy Debate

With just a week and a half before Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's planned energy debate, many Senators in the Democratic Conference are getting nervous that the Nevada Democrat is putting them in a politically perilous position for a bill that seems destined to be filibustered.

Senators and aides said they are concerned that with so little time before floor action, Reid has yet to settle on either the policy or the political strategy for the package.
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But for Democrats up for re-election this year, the issue ­- in any form - appears to be a loser. "There are a lot of Members who aren't enthusiastic about having energy hang over the August recess like health care hung over last year's recess," one senior Senate Democratic aide said.

Indeed, raucous town hall meetings in which Members were excoriated by conservative tea party activists for their support of a health care reform bill that had yet to be debated remain a fresh memory in many Senators' minds.
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A Lincoln spokeswoman said the Arkansan was also not necessarily opposed to an energy debate but "made clear to her colleagues that she does not support attaching any cap-and-trade proposal to any energy bill that the Senate considers because it will cost Arkansans jobs and put additional financial burden on hard-working Arkansas families."
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Though Democrats said they did not know what Reid's ultimate endgame is, some posited that he may be dangling a utility-only cap-and-trade system out there only to prove to its supporters that he can't get the votes.

American Thinker: Hold Your Nose: I Smell Cap-And-Trade

Some of the stinkier elements of the bill include the "Monthly Energy Refund," which I refer to as "The Monthly Bribe." According to this scheme, for those with a gross income that "does not exceed 150 percent of the poverty line ... a direct deposit" of an undisclosed amount of money will be sent "into the eligible household's designated bank account[.]" Seems to me this payoff proves the authors of the bill are anticipating a huge cost of living increase due to the multitude of taxes and fees on all things energy. The Democrats are treating Americans like cheap whores.

Nature News [Logging *causes* global warming?]

The report's authors suggest that fighting illegal logging is a cheap way to prevent carbon emissions — produced when felled trees rot or are burned. The decline in illegal logging may have kept some 1.2-14.6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide locked up in trees over the last decade.

Sloan's Mill Log and Timberframe Homes: [Logging *prevents* global warming?]

Sustainable forests that are harvested and manufactured into building products continue to store the carbon dioxide within the products. Meanwhile, the forest regenerates with young trees that absorb even more carbon dioxide — thus achieving a net reduction in global emissions. As a result, the cycle of wood use and forest regeneration becomes an important tool in the fight against global warming.