The United States desperately needs to work out how we will meet our energy needs in the next several years. Not only are we faced with the specter of climate change, but we are also engaged in endless wars over control of oil and gas.
So when the Republican controlled House of Representatives was tasked with addressing a compromise energy bill this month, people assumed that they’d see the seriousness of the issue.
Alas. It was not to be.
Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska is seriously pissed off at her Republican colleagues in the House. She told the Alaska Journal on Dec. 16th that Speaker Paul Ryan was supposed to lead the house through a discussion and vote on the “Energy Policy Modernization Act,” which was passed by the Senate.
The bill is designed to address our energy infrastructure, to prioritize renewable energy, and to provide training for jobs within the renewable energy sector.
In other words, this is a serious bill that really needs to be passed.
It’s final step was to pass the House. It was supposed to be addressed by the House members on December 8th.
Unfortunately for the first federal energy bill in ten years, the Speaker of the House and many of his Republican colleagues had tickets to ride.
They were all scheduled to attend a holiday party in New York City. They just couldn’t find the time to deal with one of the biggest crises facing the country.
So Speaker Ryan ended the session, choosing his holiday festivities over the energy needs of this country.
Senator Murkowski said:
“The Speaker said ‘We’ve run out of time’ because they wanted to get on the party train.”
As the GOP House members hopped on the party train to New York, headed for a happy holiday fund raiser, the bill died in committee.
This is the bill that Senator Murkowski has been working on for almost two years. The bill that would have modernized our energy for the very first time in a decade.
The good Senator is enraged at what the GOP House leader did.
You have to step back and feel a whole new level of anger and frustration when even a well respected Republican Senator is unable to get the Republican House to deal with the problems that plague us.
What can we possibly hope for in the next four years, if the highest priority for Speaker Ryan and his members is the chance to raise more money?
Personally? I’m not feeling real optimistic.
In this video you can hear Senator Murkowski addressing the importance of the bill, and all that it took to bring hers to its near passage, on the Senate Floor.
Featured image via YouTube screengrab.
