Representative Henry Waxman of California was voted Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee today. Waxman ousted longtime committee Chairman John Dingell of Michigan by a vote of 137-122 in a secret ballot amongst House Democrats. Dingell had been the Chair or Ranking Member of the Energy & Commerce panel for the past 28 years. The Waxman-Dingell battle for the committee was one of the more hotly contested intra-party battles in DC in recent memory and clearly signals a new direction in the House regarding Energy Policy.

Waxman holding the gavel on energy matters in the House is what we call good news around here. Michigan Democrat Rep. Dingell was one of the staunchest advocates of the policy wishes of the Big Three Detroit automakers that the Capitol Dome had ever seen and it’s kind of hard to drastically change the energy policy, the way President-elect Obama and the Democratic leadership have proposed, when a key committee chair from your own party undermines you.

Read the rest of this entry »

General Motors stock fell below $3 per share at the close of trading yesterday on the New York Stock Exchange. The price was the lowest the stock had sold for in 65 years, pushed down by the economic crisis, record low consumer confidence and the inability to access credit for auto loans amongst those rare few who do want to buy a car.

The flailing American auto industry is in such dire shape it has prompted calls from Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to hold a special lame duck session of Congress in order to address the needs of the troubled sector and provide it with emergency aid, as the Big 3 Automakers join the seemingly neverending line of American companies jockeying for a Government bailout.

Letting the Auto Manufacturers fail would unquestionably cause tremendous harm to the future economic prospects of the United States. However a “cash and carry”, “take the money and run” corporate gimme is not an option either. If the American taxpayer is going to fund the failing of the Big Three auto manufacturers, an ownership interest as well as major concessions by the companies will have to be part of the deal. Chief amongst these concessions should be a contract, signed by all companies to drastically improve their fuel efficiency standards and focus on alternative energy vehicles, chiefly electric cars. This is a historic opportunity to change the way Detroit operates that we cannot miss.

Read the rest of this entry »

Rep. Henry Waxman (left) and Rep. John Dingell (right)

The battle for Chair of the House Energy Committee is getting heated between Democrats John Dingell of Michigan and Henry Waxman of California.  Dingell, the current Chair of the committee, referred to his challenger Waxman recently in a Detroit radio interview as “anti-manufacturing left-wing Democrat” with a “serious lack of understanding of people in the auto industry and manufacturing generally.”  Waxman is not phased however, claiming to have the votes within the Democratic caucus to take the gavel of the powerful committee away from his Michigan colleague in the incoming Congress.

Why do we care you ask?  The reasons are pretty straighforward:

1. Committee Chairmanships are the true power centers in our Federal legislative process.  The Chair of a Committee chooses what legislation he or she will allow to come before the committee, thereby framing the entire discussion of what the fully assembled House of Representatives or Senate will eventually vote on.  If the Chair wants to push a new law through, they can.  If they wish to bury it, it will disappear, lost in the swamp of parliamentary procedures that litters the land around the U.S. Capitol.

Read the rest of this entry »

The economy and the planet breathe a sigh of relief as the House-approved bailout now includes renewable energy tax incentives for the solar, wind and bio-diesel industries.   While the bailout package apparently required some peculiar padding to pass, including tax exemptions for rum, arrows, and a racetrack, the green energy credits offer great hope for a sustainably powered future.   Renewable energy companies and environmentalists have been wringing their hands for months as the House and Senate played catch with the tax breaks, which were set to expire at the end of the year.   Some people were even fantasizing over what could be done if the entire $700 billion went towards renewable energy.

These measures will provide essential credits for building more energy efficient homes, purchasing electric cars, installing solar panels and wind turbines and ultimately removing our dependence on dirty oil.   One of the other incentives including in the package will allow employers to  help employees buy and maintain bicycles for commuting.   The House and Senate should be applauded for taking this step towards a cleaner and safer future.

takepart with Wecansolveit.org

Related:

Inconvenient Truth of the Day

It’s nearly impossible to leave your home these days without overhearing people’s opinions on the credit crisis and bailout package.   Yesterday, while running errands, I had the misfortune of tuning in for a few minutes to a conservative Baltimore radio commentator, hilariously trying to pin the credit crunch on Democratic policies and their obstruction to regulation (!), while railing against the bailout and vaunting the House Republicans who voted against it (no word was mentioned about the Democrats who actually doomed the measure).   Later while standing in line at a National Wholesale Liquidators in Northeast Baltimore - about as good a place as you can find to overhear regular people’s concerns - I listened to a checkout line full of shoppers irate over the bailout package that would go to “all those millionaires up there in New York“.

It is indeed an infuriating thought that billions of dollars of Federal, taxpayer money will go to the same Wall Street firms who greedily demanded deregulation from the politicians they patronize in Washington, then, once they got it, eagerly wrapped it around their own necks and hung themselves.   So why do it?  What is the possible justification for this?  The answer comes down to one simple concept: Credit.

Read the rest of this entry »

The US House of Representatives defeated the mammoth bailout package for Wall Street this afternoon by a vote of 228-205.  The move sent markets reeling with the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropping over 700 points before recovering slightly.   Details are still emerging regarding the machinations of this coup against both Democratic and GOP party leadership, but it is clear that “No” votes came from both sides of the aisle in striking this record bailout package down.

Like virtually everyone following this unbelievably important story, I have had my share of doubts about bailing out an industry that got itself, and the rest of the country, into this enormous mess.   However after research and much reflection, it is clear that something desperately needs to be done.   The credit markets in the United States are on the verge of falling apart, with nobody having access to the capital they need to run their business, buy property or loan between banks.   In a system such as ours this is an untenable situation.   American needs free flowing credit - to qualified borrowers - in order to function.   It is as simple as that.   Striking down this bill is preventing a desperately needed package from helping to revive the economy.

Read the rest of this entry »

In what’s becoming just another day at the office in the world of American Banking, Washington Mutual was seized by the Federal Government today. An enormous number of bad investments in the mortgage backed securities market at the Seattle based bank forced the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to take control of WaMu and sell its assets off to J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. for $1.9 Billion. The Company had been previously valued at having over $307 Billion worth of assets making its failing the largest in the history of the United States, by far.

The good news to be found in this troubling event is that the sale of WaMu eliminates any exposure the FDIC’s insurance fund had to the assets deposited in the bank, with those now being guaranteed by J.P. Morgan Chase. So at least WaMu’s customers are secure and we’re not all taking the hit on the irresponsible investments that the bank’s management should have known not to make.

Read the rest of this entry »

Don’t believe the hype from the politicians, the bailout is all about politics. Congressional politics, Senatorial politics and most importantly Presidential politics. Two huge aspects of politics that often go unspoken are taking credit and assigning blame. Indeed many of the key policy positions of political parties in the United States and democracies around the world arose from their ability to either take credit or assign blame for actions on issues related to those positions. This bailout is no different, and the way it’s played by both political parties and their respective candidates has the potential to redraw the political map as we know it in this country for a generation to come, if not more, should one side take a bold action.

The current bailout plan proposed by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has elicited a deep measure of skepticism in the electorate for a number of very poignant reasons. True conservatives absolutely detest spending taxpayer money to bailout anything, with many considering the current plan “financial socialism” as Kentucky Senator Jim Bunning termed it. Liberals aren’t so much turned off by the socialism than by the fact that it’s intended to go to the people in this country who need it the absolute least: Wall Street investment firms. Finally people from across the political spectrum can all think of much, much better things to do with their hard earned $700 Billion than to go and gamble it on a financial industry that has already had a number of bailouts and is still falling apart.

Read the rest of this entry »

Here at takepart we often urge you to takepart and contact your representatives in the House and Senate to make your voice heard.   However, it turns out there’s a Right Way and a Wrong Way to actually tell your representatives in Congress how you feel.   The Consumerist has compiled a handy guide to writing the facypantses in Washington, and it’s quite good.   So let’s take a gander!

First off, we are reminded not to just find form letters and fill in the blanks.   It turns out members of Congress are pretty smart people, and tend to notice if people aren’t really taking the time to individually express their opinions.

Form letters are not an expression of values; they are a show of organizational strength. If the NRA convinces five million people to send letters opposing gun control, it shows that the NRA can muster five million people to action, not that five million people necessarily care about gun laws. Congressional offices know this and generally disregard form letters…Members treat each type of letter differently, but most look for individual letters as a barometer of their district’s concerns.

So you actually may need to take fifteen minutes to write a personal letter to your representative.   Sigh.

Read the rest of this entry »

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is sticking to her guns, firmly rejecting the notion the House solely vote on whether or not to drill offshore.   The California Democrat will instead introduce comprehensive energy legislation which includes limiting tax breaks for oil companies and funding alternative, renewable energy with the royalties from new drilling in approved areas.   The Republican backed measures for a simple yes or no vote on offshore drilling, sidestepping or ignoring all other energy concerns in the United States for the GOP’s corporate oil sponsors, were described as “a hoax on the American people,” by the Speaker.

The Baltimore-bred, San Francisco Congresswoman went on to tell KQED television’s “This Week in Northern California“:

You want to drill? We want the royalties for the American people, and we want that to pay for renewable energy resources. We want to connect all that together.

Read the rest of this entry »