Slowly Turning The Energy Ship Around

When the energy bill hit the floor of the Senate, I echoed Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid observation that it's "just the first step." And I also raised concerns that special interests could dirty up the bill and make it not even that.

Now, the bill has passed the Senate. The good news is the attempts to make it dirty were successfully stuffed.

No money for liquid coal. No phony clean electricity mandate that would include coal and nuclear.

And the bill was made a little stronger than initially proposed with two key amendments:

An increase in vehicle fuel efficiency to 35 miles per gallon by 2020, while closing the loophole that let SUVs guzzle more gas than other cars.

And an investment in training for good-paying, sustainable "green-collar" jobs, putting to rest the notion that investing in clean energy hurts the economy.

So the bill remains a decent first step. The ship is beginning to turn away from a fossil fuel nightmare and towards a clean energy future.

However, other proposals necessary for a truly comprehensive global warming strategy had strong majority support in the Senate, but were blocked by the conservative Senate minority.

The provision to require 15% of our electricity to come from renewable energy never even came up for a cloture vote that would have ended a filibuster.

(Oddly, Congressional Quarterly reported: "Democrats insisted they had 60 votes ... But Reid never filed the cloture petition needed to override Republican objections — a decision he later said he regretted." Kinda pathetic, but at least bodes well for future attempts.)

And conservatives filibustered a tax package that would have established long-term tax credits for renewable energy -- critical to establish market certainty and attract investment.

(UPDATE: Gristmill cites a report that Sen. Reid claims 60 votes for the tax package, as two senators were unavoidably absent, and plans to bring the issue back.)

Finally, the big proposal needed for a comprehensive strategy -- a cap on greenhouse gas emissions -- has yet to be crafted and put before Congress, but that is expected later in this congressional session.

Nevertheless, what cleared the Senate remains a step forward.

Regular readers know I'm not a fan of the accommodatist approach of this Congress, but this is a compromise bill that does not betray core principles. Credit where credit is due.

Now attention turns to the House. Again, the bill could get stronger, or weaker.

And our voices are still needed to ensure the special interests don't dominate the debate.

Views expressed on this page are those of the authors and not necessarily those of Campaign for America's Future or Institute for America's Future