Last week the House passed the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES), aka, The Climate Bill. And boy have there been a lot of upset people! The only people who actually seem into it anymore are Rep.s Waxman and Markey, ostensibly the crafters of the legislation. 

From the right, the conservatives are freaking out because this bill will DESTROY EVERYTHING. They don't believe in climate change in the first place, so anything to fix a made-up problem is just silly to them. Of course, these are the folks who love President Reagan, and he's the guy who wanted to count ketchup and relish as vegetables in the school lunch program. 

From the left, Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace are launching an all out assault on the bill saying it doesn't go far enough. I myself have said here on this blog that a climate bill should not include R/D for clean coal. 

The oil industry, agribusiness, and big coal have all simultaneously helped write the bill while publicly deriding. 

And, what's this? President Obama has suggested he's not a huge fan of the trade sanctions in the bill. 

Oy vey! 

Maybe democracy doesn't work to well. Waxman and Markey sat down to do a glorious thing - legislate the causes of climate change. They knew the president was on their side, they knew the public (mostly) was on their side. They knew big industry would be pissed. They knew Limbaugh and Beck would be pissed. The knew the Heritage Foundation would publish a slanted report. 

So what happened? They invited everyone to the table, and nobody came away happy. That may be an overstatement, but the only people I can see as happy are the people just psyched SOMETHING happened on climate in the Congress. I just think the bar should be so much higher than something.