Waxman-Markey unleashes brilliance? « Green Hell Blog

Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT) said that Waxman-Markey would “unleash the brilliance” of our scientists and engineers. Has there been a law against such brilliance up until now?

Sunshine in Your Tank? - Edward John Craig - Planet Gore on National Review Online

Planet Gore regular Navy Bob has checked [this] out, and has this to say:

Finally! Someone making the point that electricity from windmills and solar panels has nothing to do with energy independence and reducing oil imports — although it was buried at the bottom of the story. It should be the lead of every article about energy because the argument that solar and wind power will help us become energy independent is the main attraction that renewable energy holds for normal people who aren't enviromaniacs, and it's totally bogus. The author rightfully distinguishes between renewable electricity — which we don't need since, as he notes, we're already electricity-independent — and renewable transport fuels — such as ethanol, which is bogus for other reasons.

Although the author points out that oil is burned to produce only 1.5 percent of our electricity, he didn't note that it's oil left over from producing gasoline and diesel for vehicles. You can only get a certain amount of those critical transportation fuels from a barrel. What 's left over is made into other products — very useful ones to be sure, such as the residual fuel oil occasionally burned in power plant boilers when it's cheap enough. But they're still leftovers. If that small percentage of oil burned for electricity were eliminated, we would still import the same amount of petroleum for our vehicles.

Cap and Tax (and Tax and Tax and Tax)

The Pelosi Democrats will try and push through the massive tax hike that is disguised as "cap and trade" today, and the 1200 plus page bill is constantly changing and of course has not been read much less understood by the Democrats voting for it. If this bill or anything remotely like it becomes law, the American economy will be pushed into a deep recession that will make the past six months look like the good old days.

Moderates and conservatives are wrong to expect that the Senate will simply kill the bill, though all efforts will have to be switched immediately to the upper chamber if the Pelosi/Waxman/Markey radicals bribe enough Dems with special provisions to pass it today. The so-called Blue Dog Democrats are proving to be worthless as a check on the hard left of their party, and only a huge course correction in November 2010 will keep the country safe from the radicals currently running the Democratic caucus in the House. No one who votes for this bill can claim to be a "moderate Democrat."