STUCK IN SECOND GEAR:

Why Does the Much-Touted Climate Bill Look Like It Was Stolen From the Republican Playbook? (David Morris, June 6, 2009, AlterNet)

[W]hen it comes to climate change policy making, the Republican Party can justly claim a major victory for its philosophy. We may have a Democratic president and a Democratic Congress, but the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 recently passed out of the House Energy and Commerce Committee is very much a Republican bill characterized by a paucity of sticks and a plethora of carrots.

In fact, President Barack Obama has publicly described the bill as his and the Democrats' preferred alternative to regulation. Without the bill, he has threatened, the EPA will directly regulate greenhouse-gas emissions, a power it was given by the Supreme Court in 2007 and which it announced it would exercise in April 2009. Indeed, the bill specifically prohibits Obama's EPA from regulating these emissions.

The bill's carbon-cap-and-trade provisions are by all reports its heart and soul. They exemplify a Republican approach: Don't tell polluters what to do, bribe them and hope they do what you want. Democrats have faked left and gone right.

Rather, they've faked Right and followed through. They may not believe in all this stuff but it's the only way they can win elections.

Posted by Orrin Judd at June 10, 2009 1:56 PM