The Solutions Insider: Week of March 8th

STOP THE ENERGY TAX

Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) is embracing her opposition to cap and trade in her latest television ad. The move suggests she is happy to differentiate herself from primary challenger Bill Halter on cap and trade as she doubles down on her position. This is also despite new ads against Lincoln financed by groups like the Sierra Club and the League of Conservation Voters.

(The ad itself is actually a rejection of most major Democratic initiatives, including not only cap and trade but also government-run health care and massive spending bills.)

With an eye on the Lincoln race, the Sierra Club is ramping up efforts in elections this year, which is also part of a broader strategy by environmental groups to make a last major push for climate legislation in Congress. That effort, of course, is running into a stronger headwind each week.

The EPA announced another tailoring rule to its endangerment finding last week, a direct response to state regulators warning that EPA regulation as proposed would cover more entities than the agency thought. The move once again raises serious questions about whether the Clean Air Act was ever intended to be used to regulate GHGs. If the EPA has to change the act the conform to its endangerment finding, then how can the agency claim that the CAA was the basis for the finding?

Meanwhile, another Democratic Senator has raised serious objections to the EPA regulating carbon. In the process, Senator Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia made a rather blunt statement about government overreach and how the EPA is unfit to address energy issues:

"At a time when so many people are hurting, we need to put decisions about clean coal and our energy future into the hands of the people and their elected representatives, not a federal environmental agency."

Rockefeller's measure is one of many bills introduced recently with bipartisan support to block the EPA from regulating carbon. It also comes alongside lawsuits from Virginia, Alabama, and Texas seeking to stop the EPA in its tracks. Texas Governor Rick Perry was particularly direct, saying the EPA was using "Draconian punishments to force a square peg of their vision into the round hole of reality."

The EPA claims, however, that its bureaucratic takeover of the American economy represents a "common sense" solution.

DRILL HERE DRILL NOW PAY LESS

Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT) indicated late last week that expanding drilling for at least part of Alaska will not be part of the climate legislation he is drafting with Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC). With respect to drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), Lieberman said flatly, "That is just not going to happen."

This is a major development with respect to the chances of passing the compromise measure, as Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) has stated that there would have to be drilling in ANWR as part of any climate bill that she would support. Murkowski is seen by the Democrats, or at least was seen, as one of a handful of Republicans who could possibly vote for a carbon criminalization plan.

American Solutions, meanwhile, is continuing to lead the charge for offshore drilling, fighting back against delays within the Obama administration and the Department of Interior. You can read more about the numerous delays that the administration has imposed upon American energy producers here.

JOBS HERE JOBS NOW JOBS FIRST

The Congressional Budget Office projected yet another record deficit this year, surpassing even the massive $1.4 trillion deficit from 2009. The Obama administration will run up a $1.56 trillion deficit for 2010, which is more than 10 percent of the American economy, a level unseen since the post-World War II era.

The high level of spending over the past two years has been largely due to the $862 billion stimulus program passed last February, a measure that is even coming under fire from Democrats. Senators Jon Tester, Bob Casey, Sherrod Brown, and Chuck Schumer, for example, responded angrily to a recent report showing that almost 80% of the Recovery Act's $2 billion allocated for clean energy grants actually went overseas to foreign wind companies.

Last week the House approved the $15 billion jobs bill as passed by the Senate despite initial fears that liberal lawmakers would vote against the measure. Members such as those in the Progressive Caucus believed the bill to be too small, but were likely won over with a promise that the bill would be the first of many separate jobs bills.

Lending credence to that possibility was news that Senators Harry Reid (D-NV) and Max Baucus (D-MT) have unveiled a new $150 billion jobs bill recently. The bill is loaded with tax cuts and federal program extensions, going beyond the $85 billion measure that Reid himself nixed a few weeks ago because it included too many tax breaks. After winning several Republican votes on his latest jobs bill, Reid probably recognized that he can score legislative victories and gain GOP votes if he leans heavily on tax cuts, a point that probably should have been clear to him throughout this whole process.

Of course, despite any existing or future legislative victories, Harry Reid's biggest problem going forward will be explaining his most recent gaffe. On Friday, responding to the latest jobs report, Reid said on the Senate floor that it was "really good" that 36,000 people lost their jobs in February. With Reid locked in a tight re-election battle this year, such a slip could be devastating for him in November.

FREEDOM NOT FEAR

Despite threats that they would sit out the elections in 2010 if Congress didn't focus on the Employee Free Choice Act, Big Labor is still planning on spending heavily this year. The AFL-CIO, for instance, will spend a record amount in six key states around the country, surpassing their spending even from the record-setting 2008 election.

The states in which they plan to focus their efforts are California, New York, Illinois, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, all of which have high union worker populations. If you live in those states, expect to see door-to-door activity from labor activists and organizers, as well as some increased advertisements as the mid-term election nears.

AMNESTY AND IMMIGRATION

Despite its widespread unpopularity, President Obama is planning to work with Charles Schumer and Lindsey Graham on another push for "comprehensive immigration reform" sometime this year. A similar proposal was introduced in committee in the House late last year, but the measure has remain stalled as lawmakers focus on health care reform and jobs bills.

The trio will likely have to move on a bill by April or May to have any shot of passing it. Otherwise, the focus of lawmakers will turn instead to the November elections. In the past, CIR has been derailed easily with pushback from voters who consider it amnesty for lawbreakers, so it will also be interesting to see how Schumer, Graham, and Obama fight against that label.

The Colorado State Senate recently defeated a measure to require businesses to use E-Verify to validate the legal status of their workers. Democrats were able to kill the bill in committee on a 2-3 party-line vote. Supporters of the bill argued that the bill was necessary, especially during a time of high unemployment, to guarantee that jobs would only go to legal residents of the United States.