Leaders Grandstanding On New Greenhouse-gas Regulations

Gosh, it irks me to have our leaders take advantage on our ignorance – but I guess that what they do for a living.

Lisa Jackson, the administrator of the EPA, said recently that the agency will “issue guidance soon that states and polluters may use to implement the agency’s new greenhouse-gas regulations,” and that complying with the rules “is practical and is manageable.” Of course, it’s not at all clear what that means in terms of pragmatic consequences. But that didn’t deter our elected leaders from seizing opportunity to grandstand on either side of the aisle. Knowing that most people have no clue of the basic economics of new energy, and simply love a partisan fight, they were on camera more or less instantly.

Lawmakers led by Senator Jay Rockefeller want to postpone EPA action, saying the rules will hurt businesses and consumers grappling with a sluggish economy. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid wants to schedule a vote on Rockefeller’s bill “before we leave here.” Rockefeller is “aggressively pursuing” a two-year delay of the greenhouse-gas regulations for industrial sources such as power plants because “the unelected EPA” shouldn’t get ahead of Congress.

Is anyone asking about creating a level playing field for clean energy? About the real effect in job creation?  Maybe, but they’re incredibly hard to find.