Deja vu ... all over again

Senate again rejects legislation to extend tax credits for renewables

Posted by Kate Sheppard at 2:40 PM on 17 Jun 2008

The Senate failed to invoke cloture on the Renewable Energy and Job Creation Act of 2008 this afternoon. The vote was 52-44, well short of the 60 needed to move the legislation forward. This legislation would have extended the investment tax credits (ITC) for solar energy and the production tax credits (PTC) for wind, biomass, geothermal, hydropower, landfill gas, and solid waste.

The vote fell primarily along party lines, though Republicans Norm Coleman (Minn.), Susan Collins (Maine), Olympia Snowe (Maine), Bob Corker (Tenn.), and Gordon Smith (Ore.) crossed over to vote in favor of moving the bill forward.

But wait, doesn't this sound familiar? Why yes. It was a mere week ago that the Senate voted against cloture on this same tax-credit-extension legislation by a vote of 50-44. In fact, this is the sixth time [PDF] the Senate has failed to advance legislation to extend renewable-energy tax credits since June 21, 2007.

For story: Deja vu ... all over again
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Is The Filibuster Rule Legitimate?

That's the real issue here. While filibustering has been used by those representing the powerless, it has also been used by racists, and Senate Republicans are now illegitimately using it to block any legislation they don't like. (BTW, this shows what a bunch of useless wimps the Democrats are for refusing to use this rule when they were in the minority.)

So, should this rule be eliminated so that the will of the majority is realized, or should it be kept so that those who are in the minority don't have their rights trampled?

by Wolverine at 4:02 PM on 17 Jun 2008

Real simple...

...just tack it onto a piece of veto-proof legislation.

How hard is that?

After a half-dozen failures, while the heck are still tryin' to pass this as it's own bill/act?

I keep sayin' they should've just added it to the farm bill, but noooo....

by Tasermons Partner at 10:45 PM on 17 Jun 2008

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