In the immortal words of Daffy Duck: "What a revolting development this is!"
In a depressing "NY Times" article from yesterday, Hopes Dim for Measures to Conserve Energy, we are told "The prospect of a comprehensive energy package's emerging from Congress this fall is rapidly receding, held up by technical hurdles and policy disputes between the House and the Senate and within the parties." As you will remember, I've written about the energy legislation extensively here. It was the hope that the conference committee would meet early this fall to commence its deliberations in order to produce a final bill for the two houses to approve and to send to the President. From "CNN" we have Democrats Challenge Each Other In Battle Over Energy Bill which is a little less pessimistic. It highlights the differences between some constituencies within the Democratic caucuses from both houses , which we knew about , and it talks about getting a little later start for the conference committee then we might have hoped for, but it doesn't insinuate that we're going to be left hanging. Here's an AP story, courtesy of "Mlive.com" that's got Nancy Pelosi's view: Pelosi sees higher mileage standards combating global warming. This is more hopeful. At the blogs, here's some pessimism from "Climate Progress" – Energy Bill Hurdles Could be Fatal Obstacles.
It'll be interesting to see if Pelosi sticks to her guns. She does seem to have a real passion for this legislation. One wonders if she'll get the support from important constituencies who support a strong energy bill like the one we could have if the conference committee incorporates the best of the two versions.
