About Time for a Solar Scooter?

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The Senate will vote on its version of the Energy Bill tomorrow. All of the amendments proposing mandatory slowing of greenhouse gas emissions were pretty much voted out of the Bill, though some changes for the better mean there will now be a wrangle between the House and Senate to get a final bill passed and sent to the Oval Office. That ol' Oval Office, man, it really wants an Energy Bill passed, and it doesn't want to hear any nonsense about Global Warming, either.

Nonetheless, the Senate really can't completely ignore the subject, so it has passed a "Sense of the Senate" Resolution to hold hearings next month on global warming legislation that would establish mandatory limits on greenhouse gas emissions. This is basically the mandatory emissions-capping amendment that was proposed by Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) and voted out of the bill last week. . A "sense of the Senate" resolution is a nonbinding piece of legislation that expresses the opinion of the Senate on some issue. This one is notable because it puts the chamber on record for the first time as saying it agrees that greenhouse gas emissions are contributing to global warming. The Bingaman resolution language also calls on Congress to enact mandatory limits on greenhouse gas emissions without significantly harming the U.S. economy and while engaging with U.S. trade partners who are key sources of greenhouse gases.

At the same time that the price of crude reached its all-time high, $60.00 a barrel, and the Senate was busy voting against mandatory fossil-fuel emissions-capping, the National Commission on Energy Policy was holding a simulation game called "Oil Shockwave." This involved a bunch of former top-level U.S. officials playing at being Cabinet members responding to an oil crisis.

This imaginary crisis takes place from late 2005 to mid 2006, and includes events such as unrest in Nigeria, terror attacks in Saudi Arabia and the Valdez port in Alaska. As the crisis unfolds, oil reaches $120 a barrel, so gas at the pump is over $5 a gallon, and the Cabinet decides to release 2 million barrels per day from the Strategic Petroleum Reserves. This does little to resolve the crisis and the Cabinet turns to discussing how to craft longer term demand reduction and alternative fuel measures.

Oh? Really? How about that. And the sooner, the better, wouldn't you think? Members of the simulated Cabinet included Robert Gates, former CIA Director, who said "As we look at the consequences of $120 or more per barrel...The American people are going to pay a terrible price for not having had a long term strategy." Jason Grument, the executive director of the energy policy commission said that the Senate energy bill is a step in the right direction but contains major failings - names, the absence of strong measure to cut demand. "We will not reduce our dependence on oil until we obligate the world's auto manufacturers to build more efficient cars."
Richard Haass, former director of policy and planning at the State Dept, playing the Secretary of State in the game, said "I don't think there is a foreign policy or national security solution. At the end of the day it will have to be...energy policy that will have to be the focus."

Even former Marine General P.X. Kelley (gotta love those initials for a military man - did his parents know he'd be a Marine when they named him Patrick Xavier?), playing the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, didn't suggest that the solution to the crisis was invading all the rest of the Middle Eastern oil-producing countries to take back the oil under their sands that somehow is rightfully ours. (Much of the information in this post was taken from the Greenwire site. Paid subscription is needed to read full articles on this site.)

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