OPINION/COMMENTARY

House Energy Chair Rejects Carbon Regulation

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Joe Barton (R-TX) told reporters today that the House would reject outright “almost any” global warming language and a renewable electricity mandate if the Senate includes provisions addressing either issue in its version of the energy bill, according to the environmental news service Greenwire. Barton also said he opposes the Senate’s proposed 8 billion gallon ethanol mandate. “We applaud Mr. Barton’s resolve to keep America Kyoto-free,” said Competitive Enterprise Institute senior fellow Marlo Lewis. “The climate bill recently introduced by Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Joseph Lieberman (D-CN), as well as the climate bill soon-to-be introduced by Sen. Jeff Bingman (D-NM), are camel’s-nose-under-the-tent strategies to align U.S. law and policy with the aims and mechanisms of the Kyoto Protocol,” Lewis said. “We also applaud Barton’s stance on a renewable electricity mandate and opposition to expanding that trough of corporate welfare known as the ethanol mandate.” Barton’s qualifier—“almost any” global warming language—does not imply a willingness to consider some type of Kyoto-Lite proposal. Rather, as he explained, he was “not familiar” with Sen. Chuck Hagel’s (R-NE) non-regulatory climate bill, and thus had no position on it at this time....

===