The energy bill fell flat in the Senate Friday after the house passed it. The White House issued a statement saying,

"“Their proposal would raise taxes and increase energy prices for Americans. That is a misguided approach and if it made it to the president’s desk, he would veto it.” nyt.com

The bill is more of a panic reaction by a few well intentioned to a dire situation than a solution.

Well true, the bill would have increased the price of energy for Americans because a majority of the taxes were on oil companies that would have passed the cost along to consumers; before the money taken away from consumers could catch up by creating competition with alternative energy. Also people affected by feed prices like cattleman lined up not liking it because the huge ethanol mandate would push the price of feed up squeezing them against consumers.

The love for corn based ethanol is mind boggling requiring production of ethanol and other bio fuels, from about 5 billion gallons a year of bad science and impact of the food supply today to 36 billion gallons of the same and yet to be discovered methods of production by 2022.

Old school oil wants to clutch it's money as long as possible and government is here to empower status quo economic highways. Meanwhile, no one with power is enough of a hero to see the big picture and force change. The planet continues to die.

Nothing is going to get done here until consumers start using some things, stop using others and conserving what we must use but don't want. The great part about capitalism is that there has to be a market for something to gain power. Ultimately, an educated consumer holds all the power.