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Posted on 05/01/2009 2:54:31 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) sees global warming legislation as his biggest headache in this Congress.
Compared to cracking down on carbon emissions, which many Democrats fear could hurt the economy, Reid sees healthcare reform almost as a proverbial walk in the park.
“This may surprise some people but I think healthcare reform is easier than all this global warming stuff,” Reid said Friday.
As a result, Reid said, the Senate will likely tackle healthcare reform before global warming. Combating global warming is the highest priority of environmentalists allied with the Democratic Party.
“Across America, healthcare is a problem for everybody, but that’s not the way it is for the carbon situation,” said Reid, who made his remarks at a forum sponsored by The National Journal Group.
Reid said that blue states “down the middle of this country,” such as Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Indiana, rely on coal.
These states either consume or mine large quantities of coal and all are represented by Democrats in the Senate.
Reid said that he has been told that coal-fired power meets 98 percent of Indiana’s energy needs.
The Democratic leader knows he has the power to bring a comprehensive energy bill addressing global warming to the floor but he is uncertain how many Democratic colleagues would side with him. Instead, Democrats from coal states may join Republicans to kill an effort to tax or otherwise restrict carbon emissions.
“I can bring the bill to the floor but I just hope we can get it done,” said Reid.
When asked what issue he foresaw as giving him the most headaches over the next two years, Reid said: “global warming.”
Republicans say that Reid does not have nearly enough votes to pass a global warming bill.
Sen. James Inhofe (Okla.), senior Republican on the Environment and Public Works Committee, told The Hill Friday that Reid could muster only 39 votes for legislation that would seriously curb carbon emissions.
“The votes aren’t there,” said Inhofe.
Democrats hope to pass a massive energy reform package that would consist of three parts.
The first would set new standards for appliances and building codes, and require energy companies to increase production from renewable sources such as wind and the sun.
The second would promote the creation of a national “smart grid” to facilitate the transmission of energy production from wind farms off the coast of New England and the deserts of Nevada to urban areas.
Global warming legislation, either a cap-and-trade plan or another set of restrictions on carbon emissions, would make up the third tranche of an energy package.
Reid originally wanted to pass global warming legislation separately from other pieces of energy reform but had to change his mind because of unexpected delays in the Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
“My initial plan four or five months ago was to do this separately but it took longer to get the bill out of the Energy Committee than I thought,” he said in reference to the first two parts of an expected energy reform package.
While global warming legislation faces many obstacles in the Senate, Reid hopes to make substantial progress on healthcare reform by the fall.
Reid said his hope is to pass a healthcare bill without referring to a budgetary procedure known as reconciliation. Reconciliation protection, as the process is known, would allow Democrats to pass reform with a simple majority of votes in the Senate.
But this tactic would anger Republicans and a few conservative Democrats by cutting them out of the negotiating process.
Reid said he wants to include Republicans and conservative members of his caucus to produce a bipartisan bill.
“One reason I want to do a bipartisan bill is that we can do more,” said Reid. “If we go to reconciliation there are certain things we cannot do because of the rules that accompany reconciliation.
“Even if we got everything we wanted done with reconciliation we probably couldn’t do more than 75 percent of what is needed.”
Which means nothing more than that he wants to have some Republicans to share the blame when the whole thing goes Tango Uniform.
No, it isn't, but if they repeat the Big Lie often enough they'll get the dopes to believe it.
Also, apparently Harry didn't get the memo. You're supposed to call it "global climate change" now, to cover every contingency. "Global Warming" is soooooo 2005.
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That’s big of the Little Man. Harry prefers to trash the health care industry just now rather than destroy the entire economy for the hoax of anthropogenic global warming. Plenty of time for that later.
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