Clean Gas Energy And The Conservative Movement

Last year I was in New Delhi for a couple weeks and I was stunned by how much cleaner the air was from when I first started visiting that city-- one the World Bank ranked as the second most polluted in the world as recently as 2004. It's noticeably less polluted now because autos and buses are required to use natural gas. Yesterday Congress passed a bill, H.R. 1622 that directs the Secretary of Energy to: (1) conduct a five-year program of natural gas vehicle research, development, and demonstration; and (2) coordinate with the natural gas vehicle industry and with the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regarding streamlined certification of natural gas conversion systems to federal certification requirements and in-use emission standards.

The principal sponsor was far right gas-and-oil shill John Sullivan (R-OK), but the cosponsors were from across the political spectrum, from progressives like Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM) and Eric Massa (D-NY) to bottom-feeding reactionaries like Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Dan Boren (Blue Dog-OK) and Michael Burgess (R-TX). It passed by an overwhelming landslide, 393-35.

Who could possibly oppose something like this? If you're a regular DWT reader I bet you can name a few. Every Democrat present (252) voted yes, and they were joined by 141 Republicans. Three ambitious arch-reactionaries from the Republican Party House leadership, Mike Pence (R-IN), Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Jeb Hensarling (R-TX), joined a gaggle of the worst obstructionists and status quo-lovers Congress has ever seen-- the likes of Todd Akin (R-MO), Rob Bishop (R-UT), Paul Broun (R-GA), John Campbell (birther-CA), Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), John Culberson (R-TX), Jeff Flake (R-AZ), Scott Garrett (R-NJ), Darrel Issa (R-CA), Steve King (R-IA), Doug Lamborn (R-CO), Connie Mack (R-FL), Tom McClintock (R-CA), Ron Paul (R-TX), Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), Ed Royce (R-CA), Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA), Ed Whitfield (R-KY), etc-- in opposing the nonpartisan progressive legislation. These people are the real bottom of the barrel and the personification of what conservatism really and truly is when applied to American politics.

Note: Later in the day, Congress passed the A Child Is Missing Alert and Recovery Center Act, by a vote of 417-5. Every Democrat voted yes, and they were joined by 169 Repugs. Arizona sexual predator John Shadegg (R-AZ) was one one of the five Repugs to oppose the bill; the other four are the ones in bold above.

I wrote about this topic in another context yesterday but it would not be unreasonable to look at this list of congressional miscreants and conclude that they would have, in another time, opposed progressive initiatives like the Declaration of Independence, the American Revolution, the Bill of Rights, public education, the emancipation of the slaves, the establishment of the national park system, food safety and consumer protection laws, rural electrification, women's suffrage, the abolition of child labor, the 8-hour work day, the weekend, the minimum wage, Social Security, civil rights for minorities, Medicare... You know what? Most of the members of Congress who voted no, still oppose all this stuff today! If you support Republicans, that's what side you're on. In the 1770's you would probably have fought on the Tory side and then fled to England, Canada or the Bahamas. Maybe you'd be working at an off-shore banking scam now. You should be ashamed. Go hang your head and think about why you turned out to be such a worthless asshole.