Climate Bill Sponsors Bow to Big Oil

Wow, it didn't take long to see that Obama's clean energy future is still not ready for American soil. Who is going to stand up to the oil companies?


In a disastrous move on Tuesday evening, Senators John Kerry and Joseph Lieberman – the two sponsors of The American Power Act – bowed to big oil and voted against a provision that would have stripped $35 billion in tax breaks that the industry currently receives.

The Amendment was proposed by Senator Bernie Sanders as part of the “American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act,” and 20 other Democratic Senators joined Kerry, Lieberman, and the entire Republican delegation to defeat the amendment.

Link: http://www.energyboom.com/policy/climate-bill-sponsors-bow-big-oil

it's supposed to, but merely makes it worse, and puts off any hard decisions...gee, sound familiar?

He voted against it because it is part of what funds the green part of his bill. You might want to notice that soem of the Democrats who are among the WORST on climate change - Feingold and Rockefeller voted for this. Kerry and Lieberman both have BETTER multi-decade records on the environment than any other Senators - or previous Senators.


http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0616/kerry-lieberman-tax-breaks-oil/

Kerry has often voted to eliminate those subsidies in the past and called for it when he ran in 2004. I suspect the same was true for Lieberman.

Removing it would hurt the cost estimates, making it even harder to pass. Sanders very likely knew they were in that bill - and was willing to risk it.

Use some common sense. Kerry has been on an environmentalist since 1970. Both Lieberman and Kerry have among the best environmental records in the Senate. Not so some who voted for this - like Rockefeller. Neither are favorites of the oil industry. You might have noticed that Kerry was not on the list of the 20 biggest lifetime recipients of oil money. This means something as Obama, Clinton, Bush, McCain and Kerry usually come out the highest as they were nominees (or in Clinton's case a strong primary candidate). It means he was REALLY not liked by that industry - likely because he has always called for more regulations and elimination of their subsidies.

Eliminating those subsidies is in the energy bill and that money is used to pay for research into clean energy.