As the Senate Energy and Public Works Committee began hearings today on the Kerry-Boxer Clean Energy Jobs and American Act , the Senate version of climate and energy legislation, a CNN/Opinion Research poll shows 60% of respondents favor cap-and-trade , the central mechanism limiting greenhouse gas emissions. In a survey conducted October 16 to 18, 1,038 adults were asked: Under a proposal called cap and trade, the federal government would limit the amount of greenhouse gases that com

The Good News Economist submits: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has proposed a new version of a popular home-buyer tax-credit extension. Folks close to the matter claim a vote on the proposal is coming shortly. Another recent Senate alternative would continue the $8,000 credit for four months and then gradually phase it out after that. Current law has the credit expiring at the end of November. Complete Story »

“Amtrak is raising serious objections to a proposal that would allow passengers to stow unloaded guns in their checked baggage, saying the train operator cannot screen passengers’ bags the same way airlines do. The Senate passed a measure last month that would allow passengers to declare and check a weapon on the trains, something airline passengers can do now, provided the weapon is unloaded and in a hard and locked case. But Amtrak and some House members are against the idea. The House did not

* The New York Times reports what I noted here yesterday: The public option with the “trigger” is still very much alive in the Senate: In the Senate, Mr. Reid is considering several alternatives to his proposal for a national public insurance plan. Under one alternative, the public plan would be established, or triggered, only in states that failed to meet certain goals for insurance coverage. Yesterday I noted that the Senate leadership’s vote counting showed that the trigger was

Credit: Johnson There’s a small office on Capitol Hill that is playing a major role in determining whether Americans will have affordable health care or more renewable energy in the coming year. The Congressional Budget Office, a nonpartisan body in charge of providing economic data to Congress, has an incredible amount of power over our political system. In June, this office released a report on the Affordable Health Choices Act showing that enacting the proposal would increase the def