Today’s NY Times reports that an Alaska Republican is trying to slip a provision into a Coast Guard budget bill that would effectively kill the Cape Wind project, as it would require that wind turbines be no closer than 1.5 nautical miles from shipping lanes. That requirement cannot be met in Nantucket Sound – as everyone pushing this amendment knows.
This really stinks. There are legitimate arguments on both sides of the wind farm issue – let’s debate them out in the open, and resolve the issue on its merits. Slipping an amendment into a budget bill through the conference committee process is the worst possible way to resolve the issue.
This is a good one to call your Senators and Reps about. Even if they don’t support the wind farm (Ted Kennedy, for example, does not), they should be embarrassed to see it killed in this fashion – but they need to hear from you about it.
the amendment is being offered within the coference committee. Conference committees are the closed door sessions of all closed door sessions. In theory, they are supposed to only discuss differences between the bills, but in practice (at the federal level under hte current leadership), last minute amendments like this are offered all the time.
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So, why not just offer an amendment to the conference report when it comes out of committee? Because thats against the rules of both chambers. I’m not sure who’s on the conf committee for dems (most likely the ranking members of the budget committees and the select committees of both bodies), but they are the ones who will determine the fate of this.
but these guys all talk to each other. If there’s enough pressure from the MA delegation on an amendment that is obviously targeted at MA, maybe at least the Democratic negotiators would pay attention.
still depends on the make up of the committee. I’m trying to see if I can find it in the congressional record, but odds are the conferees are probably 2-1 Republicans to Dems. That being said, the budget isn’t guaranteed to pass, since there are gigantic divides between the size and shape of cuts made by the Senate and House.
that it is indeed 2-1 R to D, since we don’t control either chamber – yet! Still, if the D makes a stink, and neither R cares very much, maybe there’d be some hope. Or, as you say, maybe nothing will happen!
They need to change their minds about this issue anyway.