Dingell Playing Troublemaker?

[babylonsister]

http://commonsense.ourfuture.org/dingell_playing_troublemaker?tx=3

Dingell Playing Troublemaker?

Submitted by Bill Scher on July 9, 2007 - 7:28pm.

As I've reported twice before, Rep. John Dingell, chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and longtime ally of automakers, has been sending mixed messages about his intentions on global warming. It's been unclear if that's because his views were evolving in a positive direction, or he's trying to keep enviromental critics off-balance.

His latest gambit indicates the latter.

Dingell raised eyebrows last month when he indicated support for a tax on carbon emissions, an idea backed fervently by some environmentalists but generally rejected by Democrats in Congress as politically impractical.

But in a C-SPAN interview aired yesterday, Dingell said he'll introduce carbon tax legislation with the intention to show it's a political loser: "I sincerely doubt that the American people will be willing to pay what this is really going to cost them."

John Laumer of Treehugger sees Dingell's move as a way to derail attempts to raise automobile fuel-efficiency standards (aka CAFE). Blue Climate also speculates on the possibility.

more...

[rodeodance]

1. as our planet dies, US congresscritters play

[Strawman]

2. As I understand it...

The argument from the MI Congressional delegation is that we should move beyond CAFE and invest in alterative fuels, but they never seem to answer the obvious response: why not do both? Do both in exchange for help for the auto industry during the transition so we stop the bleeding in SE Michigan.