So yesterday I looked on the bright side of the Senate's clean energy bill and proclaimed my delight that there is such a thing. Though naturally, this is not the whole story.

Not least bad, according to an update at the Wonk Room, is that Brad Plumer is reporting that the Chamber of Commerce likes this bill. Probably because it will both preempt higher state emission standards (a big middle finger to the State of California, which has been a national leader in this field) and end the EPA as an actor in climate policy enforcement.

Because the EPA's authority to regulate carbon emissions under the Clean Air Act, that's probably a no go. While any bill passed will be insufficient to the needs of the situation, it will be hard to make even a good start towards solving emissions problems without preserving federal ability to regulate them. The Center for Biological Diversity explained the consequences today:

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“Hundreds of job-creating projects are still on hold because Michigan businesses and entrepreneurs cannot get bank financing. We can break the credit crunch and beat Wall Street at their own game by keeping our money right here in Michigan and investing it to retool our economy and create jobs.”

—Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero in The Detroit News March 9, 2010

Michigan, which has an unemployment rate of 14 percent, has been particularly hard hit by the economic downturn. Virg Bernero, mayor of Lansing, the state’s capital, and a leading Democratic candidate for governor, proposes to relieve the state’s economic ills by opening a state-owned bank. He says the bank could protect consumers by making low-interest loans to those most in need, including students and small businesses; it could also help community banks by buying mortgages off their books and working with them to fund development projects.

Bernero joins a growing list of candidates proposing this sensible solution to their states’ fiscal ills. Local economies have collapsed because of the Wall Street credit freeze. To reinvigorate local business, Main Street needs a heavy infusion of credit, and publicly-owned banks could fill that need.

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The other day I wrote about the huge impact from California's Toyota NUMMI plant closing,

Toyota takes off with a ton of cash, we pay the costs, it's the way the system is set up -- by us.

... When the plant closes the public takes up the costs -- paying unemployment, for example, for the up-to-50,000 people expected to become unemployed. The Federal Government will pick up the costs of the workers' pensions.

Bob Herbert, Workers Crushed by Toyota,

California has been very, very good to Toyota. It is one of the largest markets in the world for the popular Prius hybrid. Nearly 18 percent of all Toyotas sold in the U.S. are sold in California. The state has showered the company with benefits, including large-scale infrastructure improvements for its operations and millions of dollars for worker training. California is one of the key reasons that Toyota is the wealthiest carmaker on the planet.

Toyota is paying the state back with the foulest form of ingratitude.

. . . It is a cold and irresponsible act on Toyota’s part, a decision that was not necessary from a business standpoint and that completely disregards the wave of human misery it is setting in motion.

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Man China has had a really rough week. A bipartisan group of economists ranging from Paul Krugman to the conservative Fred Bergsten of the Peterson Institute have called for tariffs on China to fix the currency manipulation problem. Then a bipartisan group of 130 Congressman ranging from Dennis Kucinich to Joe Wilson sent a letter demanding the Treasury Department confront China about their currency manipulation. Then Dominique Strauss-Kahn , the head of the International Monetary Fund said Wednesday that something needs to be done to address China’s currency undervaluation

It seemed like everybody was against China. Everyone was so upset and yelling at China. China didn't know how to respond.

So finally they decided to use the dreaded line that everyone in a relationship hates to hear. Speaking yesterday, Commerce Ministry official He Ning told reporters that China could deal with the issues if U.S. leaders avoided "emotionalization".

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The Wall Street Journal says the U.S. is “wrong” to protest China’s “fixed yuan-dollar rate.” Their explanation is that many countries adopt a fixed rate, so as to ensure market stability. China is no different…

Actually, that’s not true. If it were correct that most countries maintain a strict dollar peg, there would be no need for daily exchange rate billboards at airport currency stands. Each day would mean the same exact number of francs for dollars, or lire for dollars, etc.

The real issue isn’t just that China has a FIXED exchange rate, but that its currency is so deliberately UNDERVALUED. That’s what has proven so problematic for the rest of the world.

Unfortunately, the Journal opposes any revaluation of the Yuan because it “could damage China’s growth.” No mention, of course, of the damage it is doing to American manufacturers and their workers.

##

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The conservative response to the Congressional Budget Office analysis that health care reform will cut the deficit more than $1 trillion over the next two decades is simply to call the nonpartisan analysts liars.

For some reason, when the CBO was harshly criticizing early drafts of Democratic health proposal, conservatives thought the CBO was so awesome, and some even claimed Democrats would devilishly refuse to let CBO score the final bill before the vote.

Let's take a Hot Tub Time Machine journey all the way back to 2009.

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Recently we wrote that Sen. Chris Dodd's draft financial reform bill would create a "cumbersome bureaucracy." That wasn't an endorsement of a conservative talking point: The operative word was "cumbersome." The Right likes to use the word "bureaucracy" as an epithet, but the primary definition of bureaucracy is "a body of nonelective government officials." So what's the biggest bureaucracy in the world? The Pentagon.

Conservatives agree that we need a smart, efficient, well-run military "bureaucracy" to provide for the nation's defense, even though they wouldn't use that word. Shouldn't we demand the same kind of lean, mean efficiency from our "first line of defense" against financial disaster?

There are other well-designed bureaucracies in the US besides the Pentagon. The Environmental Protection Agency has a direct mandate to protect human health by promoting a safe environment. The Food and Drug Administration is clearly tasked to ensure that the substances sold and consumed in our country meet basic standards for health and safety. Everybody understands the mission and objectives of the Pentagon and the regulatory oversight responsibilities of the EPA and FDA.

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Coalition Commends Inclusion of College Access and Affordability Measures in H.R. 4872

Robert Brandon, Coordinator of the Campaign for College Affordability, released the following statement in response to the unveiling of H.R. 4872, The Health Care & Education Affordability Reconciliation Act of 2010:

“I applaud Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Chairman George Miller of the Education and Labor Committee, who recently announced the inclusion of college affordability measures into the 2010 reconciliation budget bill. By integrating the health reform and student aid bills, the House leadership has displayed an unending commitment to students, workers, and their families.

“This legislation comes at a critical time for our country. America is falling behind in completion rates, while allowing debt to put financial strain on college students and graduates. Meanwhile, there is a huge gap in the middle-skill level work force, and predictions show that we will fail to meet our labor needs by 2025 with a shortage of 16 million college graduates. Low skill workers need training, and laid-off workers need new skills in order to meet the evolving requirements for success in today’s competitive global economy.

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Rep. Alan Grayson has written a letter calling for the release of all documents and materials contained on AIG's internal servers. His idea deserves support. US taxpayers rescued AIG and own a majority (79.9%) of its shares. Serious questions remain about the payment of money AIG allegedly owed "counterparties" like Goldman Sachs: Why did the US government indirectly pay 100 cents on the dollar to these counterparties for debts from a broken company? Were the amounts claimed by these counterparties legitimate or inflated? Was there an attempt to negotiate the amounts down - and if not, why not?

There are other legitimate and important areas of inquiry, too: Why were large bonuses paid out, presumably to the same people that ruined the company and cost the taxpayers billions? Was there a secret deal to ensure that these bonuses were paid? Did regulators and auditors perform their functions adequately? Rep. Grayson quotes fraud investigators Bill Black, Eliot Spitzer, and Frank Portnoy as saying that "a thousand journalistic flowers can bloom" once these materials are released. They're right.

The public has a right to know. These materials should be released.

The full text of Rep. Grayson's letter is below.
__________________

March 18, 2010

AIG Credit Facility Trust
Trustee Peter A. Langerman
Trustee Chester B. Feldberg
Trustee Jill M. Considine
Arnold & Porter LLP

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Tricky auto loans didn't cause the financial meltdown on Wall Street. Unscrupulous payday lenders didn't cost taxpayers a $700 billion "troubled asset" bailout.

So fussing about whether U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd's financial reform legislation contains an independent Consumer Financial Protection Agency is like worrying about whether you'll lose your tool shed as a conflagration consumes your home.

Sure, shielding consumer borrowers would be nice. But safeguarding the entire economy from another collapse is essential.

Preserving the economy requires limiting, regulating and exposing derivative trading. That's because derivatives - those credit default swaps - took down Wall Street.

Neither the House of Representatives' version of financial reform nor Dodd's proposal adequately deals with derivatives. In fact, the language for derivative regulation isn't even complete in Dodd's bill. That is to say, it's unfinished two years after Bear Stearns toppled onto Wall Street, triggering domino disasters at Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch and AIG, and warnings from regulators and politicians of a financial doomsday if taxpayers didn't hand over their hard-earned cash to save financial institutions accustomed to bonus payments in the billions.

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• Strong Deficit Reduction Smooths Path To Sunday Health Care Vote
• Student Loan Reform In Health Care Bill
• Republicans Embrace Bankers Before Dodd Bill Vote
• President Signals Support For Bipartisan Immigration Proposal
• How Different Is Kerry-Lieberman-Graham?

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Brad Johnson at the Wonk Room went through and compared the leaked Kerry-Graham-Lieberman Clean Energy Bil to the Waxman-Markey version passed by the House and President Obama's proposed plan.

(How much will the leaks resemble the final version? No one knows. So take the following remarks under advisement that there's no guarantee that K-G-L as publicly released will look anything like this draft.)

In short, it echoes the Senate version of the jobs bill: a bland, stripped down version of the House bill that's conceivably better than nothing. Though it spends a lot of money on coal and nuclear plants, which the jobs bill, even with all its missed opportunities, couldn't be accused of.

Because the legislative arena has been so relentlessly depressing lately, and with this bill probably the best that can pass, while it will almost certainly get terrible, terrible things added to it during committee markup, I'm going to focus on the bright points. What the heck. After all, it's only been released in bits, I don't yet know that they're going to gut EPA authority to regulate carbon emissions.

First is the Cantwell-Collins language, which prohibits derivatives trading on auctions and keeps uninvolved third parties out of the carbon market. Please, gods, let this make it into the final version of the legislation.

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This is one of those things you just have to see to believe. Chances are you've seen it posted elsewhere, but it bears replaying over and over and over again. Here's the face of conservatism today, for ya — mocking and screaming at a man with Parkinson's disease.

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The CBO now says health reform will cut the Federal deficit by $138 billion That's a win for the bill's backers, and should make it tougher for self-described 'fiscal conservatives' in the Democratic Party to vote against this bill. (No, let's re-frame that as a positive statement: It will make it easier for Conservadems to embrace this bill.) Now what's left is a battle between two clear political philosophies on the left and right: The principled but pragmatic progressivism embodied by Dennis Kucinich, or the nihilistic fury and self-interest that's best represented by Ann Coulter. Since both Coulder and Kucinich had a lot to say about health reform this week, it's worth taking a moment to compare and contrast their philosophies.

Let's start by offering three cheers for Kucinich. Cheer #1 is for his principled stand in favor of single-payer solutions, either at the national or state level. While I see a lot of economic and administrative problems with this large a transformation of our trillion-dollar health economy - problems not yet sufficiently addressed by single-payer advocates - Medicare For All is ethical, humane, moral, and fair. It was never going to pass, but Kucinich kept the flame alive and laid the groundwork for further progress toward a goal that may be achievable someday..

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China's currency manipulation is a worldwide problem, not just a job-killer here.

U.S. Ambassador Calls China’s Currency Stance ‘a Real Concern’,

In a speech to students at Beijing’s Tsinghua University, the ambassador, Jon Huntsman, said that economic problems in the United States had increased pressure there for a change in the value of the renminbi, which China currently ties to the value of the dollar. That has kept Chinese exports comparatively cheap and, critics say, hampered other nations’ recovery from the global recession.

“My Chinese friends like to pitch this as just an American issue. I like to say that there are many countries that feel the same way,” Mr. Huntsman said. But he focused on the growing political backlash from Americans who feel the currency policy is hurting them. [emphasis added]

The managing director of the IMF - the 'I' stands for "International" - agrees. IMF Head Says Yuan Remains Undervalued

International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said Wednesday that China's currency remains undervalued.

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