Schizophrenic Senate Climate Bill

By FRANK LINGO

As I’ve always said, Joe Manchin is just about the finest public servant to ever grate – er, I mean grace – the US Senate.

Not.

The West Virginia coal mogul finally agreed to a bill that takes on climate, taxes the big corporations, and negotiates lower drug prices. After a grueling weekend of delaying voting procedures, the Senate passed it on Aug. 7 on a party-line vote.

Long overdue is the minimum 15% tax on billion-dollar profit corporations that will eliminate loopholes big enough to sail an oil ship thru.

Also a huge relief will be to give the federal government the power to negotiate drug prices, which should greatly reduce the cost of medication for millions. Insulin will be capped at $35 per month but only for Medicare patients.

The Inflation Reduction Act does more for climate issues than any bill in history. But the only way Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer could get the recalcitrant Manchin onboard, after a year and a half of finagling, was to include a contraindicator to mandate new oil and gas leases in the Gulf of Mexico and off Alaska’s coast.

The opposing provisions are like going on a diet and exercising every day — as long as you can have lasagna and ice cream every night.

The Washington Post’s newsletter, The Climate 202, summarized the bill, previously called Build Back Better. I guess Schumer didn’t want to call it Weaken Way Worse.

The bill incentivizes drivers to buy electric vehicles (EVs) by continuing the $7,500 tax credit for new EVs and even adding a $4,000 tax credit for buying a used EV.

Another provision gives $40 billion in tax credits to US manufacturers to build renewable technologies like solar panels, wind turbines and electric batteries. There are also billions for folks to make their homes more efficient and for cleaner public transportation.

An important proposal in the original bill, the Clean Electricity Performance Program, has been dropped. It would have penalized utilities that don’t deploy more clean energy, which would have accounted for over 40% of the bill’s projected emission reductions, to reverse world warming.

Despite losing almost $200 billion from the proposal in climate initiatives just to satisfy Manchin, most environmental groups hailed the bill as transformational. However, there were dissenters. Brett Hartl of the Center for Biological Diversity said, “This is a climate suicide pact.”

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona who collaborated on the compromise, got her exception to protect wealthy donors, such as hedge fund managers, from paying their fair share of taxes.

The Senate Parliamentarian could have derailed the deal if it didn’t conform to budgetary rules, but she ruled that, except for negotiating drug prices for the general public, it passed muster to skip the filibuster.

Having cleared the Senate’s arcane machinations, it goes to the House of Representatives, which should pass it easily. Some progressives in both the House and Senate were frustrated at the bill’s watered-down version but they recognize it’s better than nothing.

Besides, with inflation as a top issue to voters, the Inflation Reduction Act’s virtues will give the Democrats bragging rights in the upcoming midterm elections.

With women’s reproductive rights and citizens’ voting rights under full-scale attack from the Republican Party, these are the most important midterms in memory.

Now if Republican politicians were smart, they would take heed of conservative Kansas voting overwhelmingly to preserve abortion rights.

But no, we can count on conservative legislators to ignore that loud and clear message from the Land of Oz, just as they ignore Americans’ will about banning assault rifles and protecting the environment.

Frank Lingo, based in Lawrence, Kansas, is a former columnist for the Kansas City Star and author of the novel “Earth Vote.” Email: lingofrank@gmail.com. See Greenbeat.world

From The Progressive Populist, September 1, 2022

Populist.com