Excellent news from Environment & Energy Daily (subscription required).

Several moderate Senate Democrats yesterday announced plans to oppose a GOP-led effort to stymie federal climate rules, which may be enough to sink the resolution scheduled for a vote this afternoon.

Some Democrats who were seen as potential backers of Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s resolution to veto U.S. EPA climate rules publicly announced that they plan to oppose the measure.

[…]

Moderate Democratic Sens. James Webb of Virginia, Byron Dorgan of North Dakota and Mark Begich of Alaska all said they are likely to vote against the resolution today.

Debate on the measure is expected to kick off today at 9:30 a.m…

As far as I’m aware, this is the first time Webb’s said out loud that he would oppose this monstrosity. Thank you, Senator, and excellent work by everyone who called his office and told him to oppose this latest assault on the environment by Big Oil Republicans!

UPDATE: I just watched Webb’s floor speech. All I can say is, I’m happy he’s voting against the Murkowski monstrosity. Other than that, I really can’t follow his thinking on this one.

UPDATE #2: Webb’s statement is in the extended text.  I agree with Webb that Congress shouldn’t cede its authority over dealing with climate change.  That is, as long as Congress acts ASAP.  If not, then they’ve de facto ceded their authority anyway.  Also, I’d point out that Congress’ – and by that I mean the Senate’s – failure to act on this issue for years now indicates a dysfunctionality that probably won’t be cured in the next few weeks, months, or even years. Hence, the EPA option.

Today, Senator Jim Webb voted to oppose S.J. Res. 26, offered by Senator Lisa Murkowski, which would have rescinded of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) endangerment findings on carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases. Senator Webb instead urged his colleagues to support Senator Jay Rockefeller’s bill which would suspend EPA’s regulation of greenhouse gases from stationary sources for a period of two years, giving Congress the time it needs to address legitimate concerns over climate change.

However, during the debate on the Senate floor, Senator Webb warned that he would work to limit the broad authority of the current EPA finding.

“I do not believe that Congress should cede its authority over an issue as important as climate change to unelected officials of the Executive Branch,” said Senator Webb.  “Without proper boundaries, this finding could be the first step in a long and expensive regulatory process that could lead to overly stringent and very costly controls on carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions.  Congress – and not the EPA – should make important policies, and be accountable to the American people for them. I share the hope of many members of this body, from both sides of the aisle, that we can enact energy legislation this year to encourage the development of clean energy sources and carbon-mitigating technologies.”

Senator Webb noted his opposition to Senator Murkowski’s resolution derived from the fact that it would reverse significant progress that the Obama administration has made in forging a consensus on motor vehicle fuel economy and emissions standards.  A little more than one year ago, the administration brokered an agreement to establish the One National Program for fuel economy and greenhouse gas standards-rather than a patchwork quilt of varying state and federal standards. This agreement is expected to save 1.8 billion barrels of oil and millions of dollars in consumer savings and is directly in line with the holding in Massachusetts v. EPA, which dealt specifically with motor vehicle emissions.

Senator Webb has long maintained that the centerpiece of any climate policy must be to encourage the development of clean energy sources and carbon-mitigating technologies. In November 2009, he introduced the Clean Energy Act of 2009 (S. 2776) with Senator Lamar Alexander.  This bipartisan bill would promote further investment in clean energy technologies, including nuclear power and renewable sources of energy.  Specifically, the Clean Energy Act of 2009 authorizes $20 billion over the next ten years to fund loan guarantees, nuclear education and workforce training, nuclear reactor lifetime-extension, and incentives for the development of solar power, biofuels, and alternative power technologies.  This bill would augment any comprehensive climate and energy legislation by moving our country toward providing clean, carbon-free sources of energy, helping to invigorate the economy, and strengthening our workforce with educational opportunities and high-paying jobs.

As a Democrat, I’ve got to say I’m very much enjoying the aftermath of tea party favorite Keith Fimian’s victory Tuesday evening over establishment Republican (formerly “moderate” Republican) Pat Herrity. For instance, check this out in today’s Washington Post.

Meanwhile, Northern Virginia’s moderate Republicans, once defined by an unusual brand of fiscal conservatism and an independent streak on social issues, such as immigration, are scratching their heads and wondering about their futures.

“It certainly is concerning,” said Supervisor Michael R. Frey (R-Sully), a five-term moderate who might face his own intra-party challenger in 2011. “The frustrating thing is if you do anything, you are no longer considered a conservative. It seems like tea partiers are against everything. What are they for?”

Herrity was roundly endorsed by all of Fairfax County’s Republican leadership, prompting questions Wednesday about the party’s political relevancy.

In short, it appears that moderate Republicans are an endangered species in Northern Virginia, and around the country for that matter. These days, anything to the left of Attila the Hun earns Republican politicians the dreaded “RINO” (“Republican in Name Only”) label and a one-way ticket to Pat Herrity-style defeat.  Thus, Michael R. Frey’s angst over the loss by his pal Pat Herrity to right-wingnut Keith Fimian.

The problem for Frey is the problem for all Republicans these days is simple: they have to move (far) right — and be “against everything”, as Frey laments — in order to win the party’s nomination, but doing that makes them far less electable in moderate, suburban, “swing” districts like the 11th CD. Again, as a Democrat, I’ve got to say I enjoy this very much. However, as a former Teddy Roosevelt-style Republican and also as an American first and foremost, I find it sad to see this once-great party continue its descent into extremism, intolerance, know-nothingism, and a rigid “party of no” attitude.  As far as Virginia’s 11th CD is concerned, the bottom line is this: Keith Fimian has morphed into a Tea Party Republican, he is unelectable in this district, and congratulations will soon be in order to Gerry Connolly on his re-election to a second term in Congress!

P.S. With regard to his comment that the tea partiers “are against everything,” I’ve just gotta ask Michael Frey, “when did you figure THAT out?!?”

While Virginia’s AG Ken Cuccinelli – our very own reincarnation of John C. Calhoun and nullification – spends his time, and the valuable time of his tax-payer-funded staff, in his personal vendetta against the recently passed health care reform program, the need for health care availability for the “least among us” continues because the bill Cooch hates so much doesn’t even take full effect until 2014.

I sometimes wonder how Virginians think it makes our state look to have to have a medical group that was formed to bring medical care to the poorest parts of the world now with an arm dedicated to providing dental, visual, and medical care to rural parts of the United States – places like southwest Virginia where there are no other alternatives available to many of the people living there.

This year on July 23-25, the Remote Area Medical (RAM) Clinic will again be held in Wise VA at the Virginia/Kentucky Fairgrounds. As usual, the clinic featuring free medical, dental, and vision care will serve thousands of persons who otherwise have no access to doctors or dentists. On October 2-3 the Ram team will visit Grundy at Riverview Elementary School.

Not only does the annual RAM clinic starkly point out the need for that health care reform bill Cuccinelli is trying to overturn, but it also inadvertently led one man who made a very lucrative living as vice president for public relations for CIGNA health insurance company to reverse the course of his life and become an advocate for health care reform. Wendell Potter may well be the most effective antidote we can find to Ken Cuccinelli and the other GOPers who don’t care about those who suffer and die because they are given the “freedom” to go without health care.  

Wendell Potter resigned his CIGNA position in 2008, subsequently joined the Center for Media and Democracy and became a vocal advocate for health insurance reform, including supporting a public option to compete with for-profit health plans. His change of heart began one hot summer day in 2007 when he saw the RAM clinic in Wise in operation.

Potter was visiting relatives in northeast Tennessee back then when he came across an advertisement for the Wise RAM free clinic at the Virginia/Kentucky Fairgrounds. He decided to check it out.

What he saw hit him in his heart. Hundreds of people were waiting in long lines to receive basic medical and dental procedures they desperately needed. Some of the people had driven more than 200 miles and camped out for days in their cars. The clinic’s medical professionals saw patients in sterilized and transformed stalls that normally were used for livestock.

For Potter, that was a defining moment in his life. He saw before him a cross section of the millions of poor, sick people that the industry he worked for didn’t care about. His days of fielding questions and obscuring or justifying  the methods insurance companies use to limit care to the insured were over.

“It was over-powering. It was just more than I could possibly have imagined could be happening in America,” he said in an interview with the Guardian’s Observer.

Potter soon resigned his job and turned his efforts to helping attain universal health care for all Americans. By the way, he is not surprised by the actions designed to repeal the reform bill. (I’m sure that would include the actions of Ken Cuccinelli and like-minded others who are filing suit in the hope that they can overturn reform and return the nation to the rationing of health care by wealth.)

“[The health insurance industry] is a very wealthy industry and they use PR very effectively. They manipulate public opinion and the news media and they have built up these relationships with all these politicians through campaign contributions,” Potter said.

Perhaps that’s be the case with Cuccinelli. According to the Virginia Public Access Project, committees for the election of Cuccinelli received $37,750 from the health industry. He got $13,000 from Anthem, $20,000 from Schering Plough, and $3,500 from the Pharmeceutical Manufacturers of America. Potter’s words ring true.

I know one thing. I am certain that I will be buying Wendell Potters forthcoming book, “Deadly Spin,” which is due out in October.