Energy Bill Chugging Along to Certain Death
Today, Nancy Pelosi and her colleagues finally got the clue that maybe they were elected to, like, pass legislation rather than just hold hearings and issue statements and talk about how much Bush sucks and passed an energy bill today. If it ever becomes law (which it won't, as Bush has promised a veto), it would require automakers to raise the corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) of their fleets to 35 mpg by 2020, which is the first increase by Congress since 1975. It also promotes the stupid fluorescent light bulbs they sell at Ikea; pays people to bike to work; eliminates certain tax breaks for oil companies; increases the amount of domestic renewables that the country has to use; and on and on and on for more than 1,000 pages. It faces an uncertain future in the Senate and a certain veto at the White House, but, hey, just because it has no chance of actually becoming law doesn't mean they didn't do something. [ LA Times ]