U.S. House narrowly passes major energy-climate bill

Quoting from the Associated Press, "In a triumph for President Barack Obama, the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives narrowly passed sweeping legislation today that establishes the Unites States' first limits on pollution linked to global warming and aims to usher in a new era of cleaner, yet more costly, energy.

The vote was 219-212, capping months of negotiations and days of intense bargaining among Democrats. Republicans were overwhelmingly against the measure, arguing it would destroy jobs in the midst of a recession while burdening consumers with a new tax in the form of higher energy costs."

As can be seen from the closeness of the vote, a significant number of democrat congress members were against this sweeping bill. One of those was democrat Charlie Melancon from Louisiana. Charlie was formerly top dog at the American Sugar Cane League, holding the position that Jim Simon now holds. Charlie represents south Louisiana whose economy is heavily dependent on the success of the oil and gas industry, so he was obligated to come out against the bill. Charlie had to have had some mixed emotions about this, in that the sugar industry would benefit by legislation that promotes green energy, and the fact that there is no other area in the U.S. more severely impacted by global warming than southern Louisiana.

I will admit that I have mixed emotions as well. We are surely moving into a brave new world with the passing of this legislation. Here is a useful Q&A website relative to this bill.

With this legislation, we are almost certainly going to hear more in the news about "cap and trade," so it is probably going to be useful to become more familiar with what this term means.