Issue #229
October 5, 2007
Dingell Tries to Bring the Pain
Josh Dorner
This past week witnessed the most cynical of attempts to block further progress on getting a meaningful increase in fuel economy standards included in the final energy bill that Congress is currently trying to put together.
Rep. John Dingell, the powerful chairman of the House Energy & Commerce Committee and the auto industry's BFF, announced his plans for a carbon tax whose purpose seems to be obfuscation and delay -- potentially killing both higher fuel economy standards and perhaps a global warming bill itself. One might be more generous in ascribing motivations had Dingell not announced earlier this year, as Carl Pope notes, that "I sincerely doubt that the American people are willing to pay what this is really going to cost them.
Witness his comments to Newsweek: "I want them to understand: this is going to hurt. And when I said that I didn't think Americans were ready to accept the cost and the misery that goes with gas taxes and carbon taxes, I was right."
And, lest you doubt Mr. Dingell's seriousness about finding solutions to global warming, Dingell said the new Select Committee on Global Warming and Energy Independence, led by Sierra Club BFF Rep. Ed Markey, is about as "useful as feathers on a fish."
I think if Dingell had been running the auto industry instead of merely doing its bidding in Congress, Detroit would be a whole lot better off. Or at least it would find more clever ways to fool people into buying its car.
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