Green Industry In The Red

While a climate bill is on the way, the reality is the green jobs Obama promised during the campaign are nowhere to be found in the stimulus plan. However, there's plenty of "clean coal" billions for the industry. Over at the Frog Pond, Steven D takes the Dems to task.

In short, no one in their right mind would want to stimulate a dying, dirty industry whose products are bad for human life, animal life and plant life. No one but our Congress and President Obama, apparently. Now I appreciate that Obama has to compromise a bit, but tossing out funding for green industries in order to subsidize one of the worst sources of pollution and global warming on earth seems like a very poor bargain to me. Right now most of the stimulus for green technologies is in the form of "tax incentives" which work slowly and will have little immediate impact. What we should be doing is providing not just tax benefits, but investment capital in the form of cheap government loans and also government funding for joint research projects with venture capitalists and other investors into ways to make current technologies more economical, and develop new technologies for the future.

Long story short, solar and wind companies are being crushed under the credit crunch and without a bailout soon, they'll go under for good just when we need them most. The problem is that Senate Dems admit they don't have the votes to stop a filibuster, nor do they even have the votes to pass the bill period.

To remove obstacles from the measure's path, Reid said numerous items could fall by the wayside. "The president, the Democratic leaders, the Republican leaders certainly have every intention of moving forward to getting everything out of the bill that causes heartburn to a significant number of senators," he told reporters yesterday.

What Senate leaders cannot predict is which provisions will stay in and which will fall out. It also remains unclear whether Democrats are willing to tamper with measures that are considered high priorities for Obama, but that tackle longer-term challenges such as health-care reform and alternative energy development, rather than providing the quick jolt of expanded unemployment and food-stamp benefits and individual tax relief.

The most ambitious effort to cut the bill is being led by Sens. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), moderates in their parties who share a dislike of the current version. Collins is scheduled to visit Obama at the White House this afternoon. "I'm going to go to him with a list" of suggested deletions, she said.

Nelson said he and Collins have agreed to "tens of billions" in cuts, although he said he is skeptical that the effort will reach Collins's target of $200 billion in reductions. The pair has counted up to 20 allies in their effort, with more Democrats than Republicans at this point.

Congress, on the other hand, isn't interested in saving them it seems. Perhaps Tom Daschle should get a job as a solar plant lobbyist now that he's looking for work.