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Lights out for GOP energy agenda?

By Darren Samuelsohn
7/10/11 

House Republicans will bow to their tea party base on Monday by bringing up legislation to save the incandescent light bulb. 

But for those keeping score at home, the proposal that reflects the catcalls of Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Michele Bachmann is likely to land in the same dustbin now home to many other GOP energy proposals. 

Republicans say Senate gridlock is the primary reason none of their big energy ideas has reached President Barack Obama’s desk. 

But the symbolic posturing behind much of the GOP agenda has left the majority with few accomplishments beyond bringing Styrofoam cups back to House cafeterias. 

“After six months, you’d hope you get down to legislating,” said Rep. Gene Green, a Texas Democrat who has tried to work with Republicans on several energy bills. 

California Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman poked at the Republicans last month by noting that out of the 417 bills and resolutions referred to the Energy and Commerce Committee, the GOP-led panel approved just 12. And none has made it to the president. 

“The fact of the matter is that this committee has accomplished virtually nothing since January,” said Waxman, former chairman of the panel who co-authored cap-and-trade and health care bills during the past Congress. 

Citing a controversial House-passed bill that would negate the Environmental Protection Agency’s scientific declaration that global warming poses threats to public health and welfare, Waxman added, “This committee room has become an alternative universe where the laws of nature cease to exist.” 

Republicans have their own frustrations with the lack of big accomplishments. But they say they intend to keep pushing bills that fly in the face of the Obama administration’s environmental agenda, even if their proposals stand little chance of passing in the narrowly divided Senate or getting the president’s signature.

One of the top GOP lieutenants on Energy and Commerce, Rep. Ed Whitfield of Kentucky, also warned that Senate inaction on the bills could become a problem for Democrats in 2012. 

“We’re going to pass bills to try to slow them down, to try to stop them and make it an issue in the 2012 elections, and the mere fact the Senate isn’t moving is not going to stop us,” Whitfield said. 

The light bulb legislation — set to come up under a suspension-of-the-rules procedure that requires two-thirds support and allows for no amendments — is the latest example of Republicans pushing a measure that addresses conservative demands but stands little chance of winning support from both the Democrat-led Senate and Obama. 

Read the rest of the story at Politico




 
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