I understand compromising in order to get things done, but toeing the line on the environment is arguably the most pressing issue we face. For Obama to sell out--suggesting that drilling will bring down prices when anybody who's done any basic research knows it won't--is totally turning his back on the environment. The tradeoffs he names are an unambitious commitment to renewables and more incentives for ethanol, which is an absolute boondoggle. I would have hoped Grist would call Obama out. As the Talmud says, If not now, when? If not me, who?

Cameron

The Renewable Energy Tax Credit (RETC) runs out in January.

Thats over 60,000 jobs, and over 6,000MW of renewable energy development down the tubes if that happens. (Not to mention a brain-drain of the key professionals in this area overseas)

Republicans have blocked the 2009 renewal of the RETC 8 times so far this year.

Republicans have previously blocked it in 2000, 2002, and 2004. (It also lapsed 3 months into 2008) During those years, the market completely crashed.  

There are ONLY 3 weeks left in September of this congress session before they close for the rest of the year.

Democrats got 51 votes in the Senate.
Democrats NEED 67+ votes to pass the renewal of the RETC.

_

So the only way that Democrats are going to get the RETC passed is if they give Republicans something they want.

And while that may not be "ideal", thats what we have to deal with.

-David Ahlport

You might want to ask your State representative energy conservation?  How much gas,  oil and electricity  we could save, if we sent illegal aliens packing.
We cannot keep up the demand for it right now!  Oil!  Diversity Alliance for Sustainable America.(earthtimes) stated in it's article that if the U.S. grants amnesty and gives citizenship to 12 to 30 million illegal migrants already here, as McCain, Obama and the majority of Democrats propose.   That all those naturalized citizens could possibly add 120 million U.S. and foreign-born relatives to the U.S., in the next 20 years whom all will CONSUME MAJOR ENERGY.  Does the American people need to escalate the 315 million plus population, the census estimates we have now?  To a new total of 435 million?

The executive director of  (DASA) admitted "Proposal to reduce energy costs in the U.S. will not work unless we also simultaneously curb U.S. population growth by reducing immigration and curbing teen pregnancies."   Severing  the illegal immigration occupation and deporting those already here is a good start,  but not the complete solution to this serious energy problem that cannot be reversed.  

Unless another Nikola Tesla, an underrated genius of the 19th century invents a some new form of energy, we will be reliant on fossil fuels for years to come? Clean coal,  geothermal, eco-fuel, nuclear and of course wind power and solar. The latter is energy that is a perpetual source of unimaginable power that knows no bounds.

The Save Act (H.R.5088) is an enforcement federal bill only, to start the EXODUS of foreign nationals illegally in AMERICA. NUMBERSUSA has all the unsuppressed facts

Amen.

Obama's goal of lowering gasoline prices is wrong per se.  Higher gas prices have produced less driving and more public transit use.  Those who want to stop the destruction caused by consumption of oil should be pushing for higher gas prices, not lower ones.

...in the second Presidential debate:

In a speech in Lansing, Mich., this morning, Obama clarified his position on the issue. "While I still don't believe that's a particularly meaningful short-term or long-term solution, I am willing to consider it if it's necessary to actually pass a comprehensive plan," he told the crowd. "

"Does anyone understand what he just said?"

Throw out out ALL the immigrants, from the sixteenth century on.

The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit.

Native Americans had bad immigration policy, and we see where that got them.  Or as I joked with couple of Native American friends, this is what they got for feeding wild animals.

...Obama's plan only allows offshore drillin' in Georgia, Alabama, and the Carolina's...

McCain's plan calls for drillin' only in the states that would allow it...

...and the only states that would allow it would be Georgia, Alabama, and the Carolinas...

so, in essence... shrugs

It is about collectivism finding a modern home.

They will never accept wind or solar farms if it means abundant, affordable energy and an increase in standards of living.

This is merely a vehicle for wealth redistribution and social change.

The day our roads are filled with tea-kettle "hydrogen" powered cars that "emit nothing but pure water" from their tailpipes is the day the left suddenly considers water vapor a greenhouse gas. And talk of disruptive micro-climates that will need to be studied...

"...a 90 percent chance that the US has contributed .2 degrees F of temperature increase in the last 50 years..." The IPCC Consensus in perspective

They will never accept wind or solar farms if it means abundant, affordable energy and an increase in standards of living.

Yeah, just like They didn't let us have personal computers that are more powerful than the Air Force computers of the 1980s...and how they didn't let us have access to the Internet...and how they banned all solar research so a company like First Solar couldn't be outperforming every stock on the market...and...

I hope Grist isn't playing politics here.  I will think we would have roasted the other candidate for selling out to big-oil. Where is the outrage?

Now, he is re-floating the terrible idea of using the petroleum reserve.

Frankly, the high oil prices is the only effective cure for our fossil-fuel disease. There is a viable profit motive for conservation and alternative energy now.

Are you denying the strange "coincidence"?

The fact that the environmental "movement" has at it's core an anti-Western, collectivist sentiment?

Please point me in the direction of anyone in the mainstream environmental community who isn't a proponent of wealth redistribution and legislated "simple living".

"...a 90 percent chance that the US has contributed .2 degrees F of temperature increase in the last 50 years..." The IPCC Consensus in perspective

Sounds great.

As long as the welfare checks keep coming, there will be no reason to innovate.

Now let's get after that criminal corn subsidy.  

"...a 90 percent chance that the US has contributed .2 degrees F of temperature increase in the last 50 years..." The IPCC Consensus in perspective

Brian, you clearly display  "...an anti-Western, collectivist sentiment?", when did Maoist zen psychobabble become "tres chic" around the dog park?

http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog John Schneider, Northern Wisconsin

Hope Mr. Obama wakes up and stops trying to give something away to get votes.  We had one rebate which was a big waste of time and money, we don't need another.  We need to use oil and gasoline carefully because they are valuable resources.  Pulling oil out of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve subverts the goal of the reserve and just makes more available to be squandered.  Same with rebates--more money to spend on gas.  What we need is a change of lifestyle, and that doesn't come from giveaways.

I've heard people talk about a Green New Deal, and I wish Obama would amplify on that a bit... lots of employment generation possible from greentech as well as creating public transport infrastructure.  I agree with above that gas prices should be high and should stay high, but not without alternative forms of transport--it ends up hurting the poorest households.  Why not use the peace dividend from getting OUT OF IRAQ to help states and urban areas create rail and bus systems?

Britannicus:  eew.  When in doubt, point at the (most recent) strangers among us.  Simple answers to hard questions...

Much of what I read here is best expressed in a voice well-pickled by decades of daily pot smoking.

No doubt for medicinal purposes.

So..if I have to be Stewie...LOL.

I appreciate a good sense of humor.  :-)

"...a 90 percent chance that the US has contributed .2 degrees F of temperature increase in the last 50 years..." The IPCC Consensus in perspective

To buy a plug-in vehicle?

If not, then it's just another thing to help those that already have money, while hurting the poor who will only be able to afford to buy gas guzzlers the way things are going.

I always hate hearing about "tax credits" because that usually does not include the poor, who could really use the help getting to be more energy efficient. That's like getting help to make their homes more insulated. Doesn't happen because the programs that should be able to do that are unfunded, so the poor pay more in heating and cooling bills because they can't come up with the up front cost of sealing up their homes.

By taking money from me, Obama can buy quite a few votes. 20, actually. 3 will actually show up and vote, but that is enough.

That is all that matters.

Then there are all of the Professional Climate Pimps. We know who butters their bread and who they will vote for.

"...a 90 percent chance that the US has contributed .2 degrees F of temperature increase in the last 50 years..." The IPCC Consensus in perspective