Thomas Freedman writes today on why the gas tax strategy is stupid and why we're not investing in alternative energy. Man are the politics of this country stupid.
It is great to see that we finally have some national unity on energy policy. Unfortunately, the unifying idea is so ridiculous, so unworthy of the people aspiring to lead our nation, it takes your breath away. Hillary Clinton has decided to line up with John McCain in pushing to suspend the federal excise tax on gasoline, 18.4 cents a gallon, for this summer’s travel season. This is not an energy policy. This is money laundering: we borrow money from China and ship it to Saudi Arabia and take a little cut for ourselves as it goes through our gas tanks. What a way to build our country.
He writes:
But here’s what’s scary: our problem is so much worse than you think. We have no energy strategy. If you are going to use tax policy to shape energy strategy then you want to raise taxes on the things you want to discourage — gasoline consumption and gas-guzzling cars — and you want to lower taxes on the things you want to encourage — new, renewable energy technologies. We are doing just the opposite.
Are you sitting down?
Few Americans know it, but for almost a year now, Congress has been bickering over whether and how to renew the investment tax credit to stimulate investment in solar energy and the production tax credit to encourage investment in wind energy. The bickering has been so poisonous that when Congress passed the 2007 energy bill last December, it failed to extend any stimulus for wind and solar energy production. Oil and gas kept all their credits, but those for wind and solar have been left to expire this December. I am not making this up. At a time when we should be throwing everything into clean power innovation, we are squabbling over pennies.
So what does this have to do with McCain you ask?
David Roberts at Vanity Fair (buried behind Miley Cirus) tells us why:
Friedman laments the pathetic level of U.S. public investment in renewable energy and efficiency, especially relative to the subsidies we shovel on fossil fuels. One quibble, though:
"The Democrats wanted the wind and solar credits to be paid for by taking away tax credits from the oil industry. President Bush said he would veto that. Neither side would back down, and Mr. Bush—showing not one iota of leadership—refused to get all the adults together in a room and work out a compromise."
The important thing to note here is that the bill never reached Bush’s desk. It fell one vote short of the 60 votes needed to override a Republican veto threat.
Who could have cast that fateful deciding vote? Why, none other than John McCain, who, alone among 100 Senators, elected not to vote at all.