An Outline of an Idea of a Bill

Pirate’s Cove has the scoop on the progress of the Climate Bill going through the Senate.

That’s right, a whopping 21 pages of bullet points. Don’t believe it? You can read the whole thing over at the Green Hell blog.

It does have many bullet points in support of expanding nuclear energy, however, then goes on to perhaps restrict more offshore drilling, and makes a huge deal out of capturing and sequestering CO2 from coal sources, which will increase energy costs, as will all the new clean air standards and regulations (FYI, I have never been a big fan of coal, I’m not in favor of expanding coal, and I am dubious about this supposed “clean coal.” That said, I do not want to see it reduced until there are viable alternatives in place and operating.)

There’s a tiny blurb on renewable energy. A tiny section on clean transportation, which seems to direct many government agencies to make demands on autos, which could affect the vehicles already on the road (and could include a gas tax). All that covered a tiny bit more than 5 of the 21 pages. From that point till midway on page 14 is all about cap and tax. The rest of the pages are about the government spending quite a bit of money giving tax breaks for purchasing carbon friendly products, investing in “green” jobs, adhering to the targets that the international community may come up with, and all sorts of ways that will actually increase costs to the US consumer.

This is a fun and strategic way to start a discussion.  By boiling down to a series of small concepts, the creators can feed what they want in little summary points without actually starting down the path of how to implement.  Whether anyone likes or hates this, it’s got enough that everyone can complain and jump for joy at the same time.

All that said, there’s still nothing for people to actually debate.  This will likely turn into thousands of pages, and the details are the real devil.  We can all comment now, but action is where this gets decided, and the discussion is just a distraction.  Still, it’ll be a fun ride if this turns out to be anything like Healthcare.  Maybe we’ll have something else to hate by November.

Updated:  Green Hell Blog has a pointer to the full text.  I’d say we should start paying more attention to the blog, and to the bill in general.