AutoblogGreen video: Six-hour House debate on fuel efficiency in just 5 minutes
I watched the last six hours of the House of Representatives debate on the energy bill yesterday and recorded significant references to CAFE, fuel efficiency, transportation, etc. and whittled it down to five minutes because hey, I know you're busy. The video above includes Dingell being praised twice for his work on CAFE by Republicans that opposed the rest of the bill. I think that the industry support for the CAFE portion came from the work done by Dingell even though Detroit did not get everything that they wanted. In the video, Pelosi said this bill could be a part of someone's legacy and I think that was directed at Dingell. Anyway, here are the list of stars and a summary of their lines in the video above:
- Doc Hastings (R) says that giving tax breaks for riding your bike to work won't solve global warming.
- Jay Inslee (D) has a giant poster of the Volt.
- John Hall (D) gives us some hyper milling tips.
- Llloyd Doggett (D) is a Paul Simon fan.
- James Oberstar (D) says the bill will authorize a center for global warming in the Department of Transportation.
- John Shimkus (R) actually has an ICE (internal combustion engine) because he is tired of carrying a half of a horse.
- Rahm Emanuel (D) says the bill will save you $1,000 a year.
- Joe Barton (R) says only eight cars get more than 35 MPG.
- John Boehner (R) says consumers are going to pay for this.
- Nancy Pelosi (D) ends it all with a smile.
[Source: C-SPAN]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
paulwesterberg 10:50PM (12/07/2007)
I can see why dingell ended up voting for the bill he got it watered down in the right places. GM is getting its money out of dingell.
http://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/memberprofile.asp?cid=N00001783&cycle=2006&expand=M02
There are separate standards for cars and trucks, so GM can just switch to 100% SUVs.
There are still reduced requirements for flex fuel vehicles so as long as the SUVs burn ethonol they can be below the mpg standard for trucks.
The best thing about this bill is that it removed goverment subsidies for big oil companies so that other energy sources have a better chance of being economically compeditive. Of course this is why bush will veto and his little helpers in the senate will try to block the bill.
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susan.kraemer 11:15AM (12/08/2007)
lovely video, thanks
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Tim 9:44AM (12/08/2007)
These bills are so loaded with pages and pages of unrelated pork that I don't believe that the congressmen read them before voting. They function purely on sound bites, hearsay and spin via word manipulation. It's tragic.
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susan.kraemer 12:07PM (12/08/2007)
Tim, theres been a change in the new congress, and this bill, is not "loaded with unrelated pork" at all. Read it for yourself. The corrupt Do-nothing congress is now in the minority and is now much less able to add its infamous pork. There IS support for creating renewable energy, like subsidising the first EVs and hybrids to help speed them to market, but not the unrelated pork. Plus this bill is all Pay as you Go, unlike the spendthrift neocons that put all the spending (like on Blackwater, Halliburton, Oil companies, rich taxbreaks) on daddies credit card (borrowed from the Saudis)
The Energy Bill IS all about greening up energy - details:
http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2007/12/6/16349/0973/38#c38
Read through the Climate Security Act which uses Cap and Trade to reduce CO2 emissions, (cap and trade worked well to stop acid rain in the 80's):
Lieberman-Warner (too bad Warner is retiring! A Republican with brains!)and tell me what is unrelated to the matter of reducing CO2 emissions.
Or watch the video: Boxer chairs the environment committee and elegantly reduces the bill to a clean simple Cap and Trade bill, despite Republicans like Senator "global warming is the biggest hoax" Inohofe and (Idaho Bathroom tryst-er) Craig and Kit Bond (now all crocodile tears over the "poor" after voting NAY on helping them with heating bills in LIHEAP), suddenly wanting about 150 nonsense amendments.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/12/5/95758/6869
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Tim 12:24PM (12/08/2007)
Well, Susan I guess you've never heard of Byrd or Kennedy both of which are KINGS of pork. This "new" do nothing congress is just as useless as the last 5 "new" do nothing congresses. All they know how to do is pander to special interests and buy votes with other people’s money and/or debt.
What we need are term limits so that we can replace the entrenched career politicians ON BOTH SIDES with unpaid volunteer citizen legislators as originally intended. We also desperately need FULL disclosure so we know who owns them. One thing for is certain, it's NOT "WE the People..."
Why is the 10th amendment to the US Constitution totally ignored?
Why won’t they defend our borders?
Why won’t they bring our troops home NOW?
Why do we have hundreds of military bases overseas?
Why are we giving $Billions to foreign countries?
Why are we building bridges to nowhere?
Why do we have a private company controlling our money and monetary policy?
How can they force me to give charity against my will?
Why do you have to be one rich and connected aristocracy (look it up) to matter or even have your voice heard?
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susan.kraemer 2:48PM (12/08/2007)
Pelosi's Pay as you Go rule reduces the silly spending on our side too if there is any, but as you see in those energy bills linked, this is very targeted legislation designed to get us out of the Oil Age and into a new sustainable economy.
(sorry for accidental multiposting)
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rgseidl 3:10PM (12/08/2007)
@ Tim -
do-nothing is perhaps an unfair charge to level at the current Congress controlled by the Democrats. It's more like a can-do-nothing Congress, because you need 60 votes in the Senate to blow your nose and President Bush will veto anything he doesn't like. Conversely, he is no longer in a position to shape the legislative agenda, so you end up with posturing and gridlock.
IMHO, the problem is not the individuals. Rather, the institutions - as opposed to the values - enshrined in the US Constitution are totally antiquated and simply no longer fit for purpose. A Constitution is not Scripture, it's just an instrument. If it's broken, fix it. You don't drive around in a model T, either, and that design is actually less than half as old.
Most modern democracies feature a head of government who is elected *indirectly* by a parliament that can pass regular laws with a simple majority. Unless a single party wins absolute power, this system results in coalitions based on a formal, coherent legislative program covering 4-5 years. Getting it implemented requires party discipline, so everyone knows exactly who is accountable for the provisions in the bills that get passed. Before long, sleazy politicians are - by and large - replaced by professionals who can specialize in specific policy areas because they don't have to spend most of their time campaigning.
Checks and balances are provided by a general public that is educated and kept informed by mass media. The public actually pays more attention because their government has a coherent set of policies, as does the opposition. That means you get a clear choice come election time and your vote actually counts for something - especially if representation is proportional rather than first-past-the-post.
All this doesn't work equally well in all countries, but the US system of government is now arguably one of the least effective in the OECD nations.
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susan.kraemer 8:07PM (12/08/2007)
rgseidl
...so thats how it works so much better elsewhere. The Democrats are trying to move congress in the right direction but with a corpse tied to their ankles.
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Tim 9:44AM (12/09/2007)
Socialists like rgseidl and susan.kreamer who would strip us of our natural freedoms and rights which are conserved by the Federal Constitution make me want to cry. You "superior beings" think you know what is good for everyone and you would happily force others to “do what you think is good for them or else”.
You two are in the wrong country! This one was NOT designed like the Soviet Union! We are NOT the land of the federal socialist slave and the home of the cradle to grave coddled crybaby where rights are replaced with privileges which are given and taken by the mobocracy who are so easily manipulated by the media and nobody can be held personally responsible for anything.
You are free to do what you want to, but when try to take away my freedoms, it will be pitch forks and torches.
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Tim 10:01AM (12/09/2007)
rgseidl- you said "Checks and balances are provided by a general public that is educated and kept informed by mass media." What exactly are you smoking?
The U.S. media landscape is dominated by massive corporations that, through a history of mergers and acquisitions, have concentrated their control over what we see, hear and read. In many cases these giant companies are vertically integrated, controlling everything from initial production to final distribution.
http://www.freepress.net/
You're talking out of both sides. I'm not sure if it's ignorance (not stupidity) or your faith in socialism. You really need to pull your head out and look around a little.
When susan.kreamer called the US Constitution a “corpse” she became automatically discounted.
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super390 9:25PM (12/09/2007)
Hey Tim! "Dominated by massive corporations that, through a history of mergers and acquisitions, have concentrated their control over what we see, hear and read" IS CAPITALISM! It's the entire point of greed! It's the entire point of keeping the government weak!
In what historical fantasy do untrammeled property rights NOT lead to fantastic concentration of wealth and power leading to abuse? The Confederate Slaveowners of America? I'd call 40% of your population in chains abuse. Pre-Communist China, where peasants sold their daughters to landlords to survive? Victorian Britain, where ruthless capitalists mated with inbred drooling nobles to create the blueprint for modern neoconservatism? In Gilded Age America, worshipped by all conservatives, where the National Guard was called out by bought-up governors to put down strikes, sweatshop fires cremated immigrant women and children, and people froze because they couldn't afford the winter price hikes for coal?
Businessmen and corporations are the descendants of the barons, dukes, knights, counts and marquises of those Middle Ages so adored by the Confederates. Nothing more than landlords who turned their cash advantage into superior weaponry. They all want to keep the king weak, until they can find a scheme to become king. The proof is that feudal landlords still abuse peasants all over Latin America and South Asia, and in all those places the United States, the GOP and our businessmen and corporations are their political allies pushing for free-trade treaties. This is capitalism.
The pitchforks and torches were, traditionally, wielded by landless peasants against those propertied defenders of limited central government.
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susan.kraemer 5:08PM (12/09/2007)
You misunderstood me:
I was refering to the minority party as the corpse tied to the ankles of whichever is the majority party.
Our system provides no clear winner able to enact the desires of either party, leading to frustration and apathy in voters here, of both parties. (For example, despite our 2006 elections, your party has successfully prevented ours from getting us out of Iraq: theres just not ENOUGH Democrats to outvote the other side. So now Democrats have become disillusioned with the "weak" congress unable to enact our wishes. When your side held the majority power Republicans were angry that you couldn't enact your agenda, either. Its a recipe for gridlock)
You misunderstood rgseidl, too.
Heres what rgseidl actually said:
"Winner take all" government works better.
They have that in Europe, plus a free press.
We don't have that here, nor is our press free.
(He also said we would also need a free press here to do better. In Europe the public pays attention because they stand to actually win or lose something, like we only do only on American Idol votes.)
Certainly his point explained to me why in Europe they have been able to enact the green legislation (when the left wins power), that we have not, except only on a state level, like California with currently a true Democratic majority, and a RINO governor.
Read carefully, to learn much.
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tagamet 11:56AM (12/10/2007)
When susan.kreamer called the US Constitution a “corpse” she became automatically discounted.
Hear, Hear!
It's tough to find ANYONE here with whom I agree 100%. I do know that throwing out the Constitution isn't the answer. I do know that millions of people wish to come to this country - and for very good reasons. I BELIEVE that the media is controlled much more by liberal, anti-capitalists, not so much by a rich aristocracy.
Is there any chance that we can draw the conversation back to "workable" issues, like greening the vehicles in the USA?
Just a thought.
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susan.kraemer 5:24PM (12/10/2007)
see comment 12: as I explained to the other non reader above:
I did not call the constitution a corpse
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Tim 11:00AM (12/11/2007)
Susan.kreamer- If you are to use the word "corpse" perhaps you should use it when referring to the 2 party system which is actually now only a one party system of rule by the elite class. The rich elitist democrats and the NeoCons are all just tax & spend cradle to grave big federal government bureaucratic socialists. They are all in the pockets of special interests and therefore only disagree on where to spend other people's money. Nobody but Ron Paul is paying ANY attention to US Constitution and the especially the 10th amendment.
If you read the US Constitution including the bill of rights, you will learn that the 1st ten amendments do NOT grant any rights but only serve to spell out, conserve and PROTECT our "natural" rights and freedoms FROM government seizure.
The Federal Government is doing what precisely what they NOT supposed to do (see amendment 10), AND they are NOT doing what they are SUPPOSED to do which is to protect the people from enemies both foreign and domestic which promotes the common welfare.
Why do they REFUSE to defend our boarders in a time of war? We are under invasion and these people do NOT want to become Americans. They only want our jobs and to regain our southern territory back for Mexico!
Why do they REFUSE to protect us from monopolies? The largest of which is the Federal Government.
Everything else the Federal Gov't is doing should be left to the states which will COMPETE for taxpayers both personal and commercial. Competition fosters innovation, improves quality, enhances efficiency and lowers prices. When the Federal Government IS the monopoly, all the many benefits of competition are lost.
This lack of competition coupled with Fiat money and our policy of foreign interventionism and nation building has bankrupted the United States and her people. We will follow other once empire building world powers such as Spain, England and the Soviet Union into oblivion.
Both Jefferson and Washington warned us about entangling ourselves in the affairs of other nations.
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