JerseyCurmudgeon2’s Recent Comments

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  The Gang of 18 can get around this

  California and the other states that want to adopt the CAFE standards may not need the EPA waiver to accomplish their goals.

  In February 2003, Michigan, Vermont, and South Carolina formed a "National Medicaid Pooling Initiative" for prescription drugs, to cut their Medicaid program costs.

  As of last December,ten states were members of the NMPI buying pool: Alaska, Hawaii, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York and Tennessee.

  The NMPI model could serve as a model for using state and local government buying clout instead of regulations to achieve the same end.

  California and the other states waiting to adopt the California standards could do an end run by defining the performance requirements for all vehicles purchased by the state governments and by all county and municipal governments who buy off state contracts. Mileage and emission standards could be included either directly or by defining other criteria that could not be met unless mileage and emission standards were met at the same time.

  They would not be telling automobile manufacturers who did not meet the standards that they could not sell what they wanted, only that no state or local government, with an enormous aggregate buying power, would ever buy from them.

  For dealers who depend heavily on fleet sales to state and local government, this could be a very big, bad deal. Or, if they were selling compliant vehicles, a very good deal.

  I would be interested in what environmental law experts think about this, and how the EPA or another Bush League agency could fight it.On EPA staff say they were excluded from waiver decision; suspect Cheney's involvement posted 1 year, 11 months ago 10 Responses

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  Worse than worthless

  Before the bill came up for a final vote, I knew that it was worse than worthless, for all the reasons cited in Ken Ward's excellent post.

  As a small-wind advocate, I was torn by this, since the final bill did contain some crumbs for small-wind. But the total effect of the bill is exactly what Ward's post says it is.

  My first reaction to the watering down of the bill was to call Harry Reid's office and ask that he pull the bill rather than have it voted on. I went so far as to say that, if he didn't grow a spine on this issue, I would ask MY Senators to support someone else as Majority Leader.

  Since then, I have been reading a lot of blog posts saying essentially the same thing. We need someone who understands the ruthless will-to-win of the other side, and is ready, willing, and able to beat them at their own game. In short, someone who knows that the only way to respond when they throw hardballs is to throw live grenades back.

  Reid ain't it.On If we put narrative above policy, how might the energy bill have played out? posted 1 year, 11 months ago 12 Responses