Posted on 12/13/2007 7:53:31 AM PST by SmithL
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Senate Republicans blocked a broad energy bill Thursday because it included billions of dollars in new taxes on the biggest oil companies.
Democratic leaders fell one vote short, 59-40, in getting the 60 votes needed to overcome a GOP filibuster. Democrats said they would strip the taxes from the legislation to move the bill forward.
Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said he hoped to get the revised energy package approved later in the day, including the first increase in automobile fuel efficiency in three decades and massive increases in the use of ethanol as a motor fuel.
He said we will "eliminate the tax title."
Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky predicted the revised bill would be approved with wide bipartisan support.
The legislation, if passed by the Senate, would have to be voted on by the House, which a week ago approved legislation that included the $21 billion tax increases with revenues marked for promoting renewable fuels and energy efficiency.
But Senate Republicans stood firm on opposing the tax increases, which they said would guarantee a veto by President Bush.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Damn ‘Rats and RINOS never met a tax they didn’t like. Do these clowns not remember what the oil companies did last time when Carter hit them with a windfall profits tax?
Not one drop of oil in the energy bill. How cool is that.
This is the (Wasted) Energy Bill.
. . . I just assume it leaves out ANWR - are we stuck on stupid or what!
Even without the energy taxes, this bill is terrible. Here is the worst provision:
“It also would rapidly ramp up the required production of ethanol, eventually to 36 billion gallons a year by 2022, a sevenfold increase. At least 21 billion gallons must be from feedstock other than corn such as prairie grasses and wood chips.”
Please no more ethanol mandates. Ethanol is a complete boondoggle. Usage of non corn-based ethanol is just speculation. The viability of ethanol mandates is completely unknown.
That's why the marketplace is a more efficient barometer of a working business model.
Another day, another defeat for the Moveon.org Democrats
Update
Senate to strip oil company tax from energy bill
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1939038/posts
Can't say as I ever heard the MSM refer to Democrats "blocking" anything while they were in the minority.
No obstruction by the Dems for all those years...no siree.
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