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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RetiredNow who wrote (543308)	1/12/2010 5:38:38 PM
From: tejek	Respond to of 1574267

It's hard to say. Investors, entrepreneurs, and Silicon Valley types are 100% with Obama on the need for a massive push into renewable energy. However, at least 1/4 of Dem Senators are in coal and oil states, which make it politically difficult for them to support Obama. Then 100% of the GOP is for a status quo on energy policy that favors oil and coal. So no matter how you slice it, Cap and Trade is probably dead, the gasoline tax was never alive, and doing anything about Global Warming is iffy. The best the Dems are going to be able to do is to pass something that focuses on tax incentives and jobs in the renewable energy arena. That means far less than what we were all hoping for. The other thing that Obama can do is to continue to support the EPA's moves to drive regulatory policies that favor renewable energy. That's an end run around the need for legislation, but that has its own problems too. The bottom line is that the best policy is one that is top down and unifies the rules to create a predictable and level playing field for all energy companies. If we could do that, then renewable energy would take off faster than it has already started to do, and then maybe we could catch up with China. We'll see. Will Obama play it safe going into the 2010 mid-term elections? Or will he go for broke and pass the best renewable energy legislation that he can get before then, while he still has a super-majority. I'd bet he'll play it safe, disappointing me yet again. Will Obama play it safe? Does he have a choice given the lack of support that you describe up above? Innovation in this country is getting stifled by competing and conflicting agendas. Counter to what you are saying, I think support needs to come from the bottom up.