Four Dem Senators say cap and trade should be put off

While the nation's focus is still on the Democrats' efforts to foist ObamaCare an an increasingly skeptical public, there is bad news on another front for President Obama.

Bloomberg is reporting that the national energy tax, better known as cap and trade, could be dead.

The U.S. Senate should abandon efforts to pass legislation curbing greenhouse-gas emissions this year and concentrate on a narrower bill to require use of renewable energy, four Democratic lawmakers say.

'The problem of doing both of them together is that it becomes too big of a lift," Senator Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas said in an interview last week. "I see the cap-and-trade being a real problem."

The resistance by Lincoln and her Senate colleagues undercuts President Barack Obama's effort to win passage of legislation that would cap carbon dioxide emissions and establish a market for trading pollution allowances, said Peter Molinaro, the head of government affairs for Midland, Michigan- based Dow Chemical Co., which supports the measure.

"Doing these energy provisions by themselves might make it more difficult to move the cap-and-trade legislation," said Molinaro, who is based in Washington. "In this town if you split two measures, usually the second thing never gets done."

The other three senators are Ben Nelson of Nebraska, and North Dakota's two senators, Kent Conrad and Byron Dorgan.

Cap and trade was ramrodded through the House of Representatives in June by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).

Next year is an election year, and I can't see the energy tax bill making out of the Senate.

This is a real victory for conservative activists. While the mainstream media was looking the other way, right-of-center American--and moderates, let their representatives know how much they detested this bill.

I took the extra step by attending a protest at Rep. Mark Kirk's office. The Illinois Republican was one of eight Republicans who voted for cap and trade.

Related post:

Mark Kirk repents (almost) on cap and trade

Cap-and-trade Tea Party at Rep. Mark Kirk's office

Technorati tags: Illinois Mark Kirk Congress illinois politics Republican climate change environment global warming Chicago North Shore Senate cap and trade