Weakened Energy Bill passes - another casualty of democratic fear and caution

Haven't seen this posted yet.  Unable to get 60 votes  to stop a filibuster, the mos important provision of the already compromise bill - billions in clean energy credits and subsidies - was removed and the bill sailed through.  Here is the AP article about it:

http://news.yahoo.com/...

I do not claim to understand yet exactly what was stripped and what wasn't, but I wanted to get this out there.  As near as I can tell, only one of the three critical pieces of the legislation was kept.

1.Increased fuel standards to 35MPG for the fleet by 2020.  Many say this is not enough, but it would have been decent in conjunction with the other items.  Without seeing the actual compromise language, I can't say how good or bad it is, because the wording on possible exemptions for light trucks (i.e. SUVs) will make a big difference.  At least it appears that this item was mostly saved.

2.Billions in new credits for renewable energy.  Gone.  Kaput. History.  This was the best feature of the bill and it now sleeps with the fishes, gone the way of the dodo bird.  The only real way to move forward on energy independence and we couldn't pass it.  Don't know how much more can be said, except it is. . .disappointing.

3.repeal of oil company tax credits.  Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but as near as I can tell, this mostly did not happen in the bill that passed.  The Bush administration successfully framed this as a tax increase.  However, this from the article:

The White House has said the taxes would lead to higher energy costs and unfairly single out the oil industry for punishment. A Democratic analysis showed that the $13.5 billion over 10 years amounted to 1.1 percent of the net profits that five largest oil companies would be expected to earn given today's oil prices.

I don't know the future of this bill as it relates to a compromise with the House - I tend to be pessimistic about getting anything back and I also don't believe the House will tell the Senate they have to add stuff back or they won't pass it.  It's probably a done deal.

Unlike with Iraq, the dems really should be refusing to pass budget and funding bills, there may not have been much the dems could have done here except refuse to pass a bill at all.  I would have liked to see them make the republicans filibuster I guess.  I can't help but think that if the leadership had been fighting harder on Iraq and some of these other issues over the past year, that extra republican vote to stop a filibuster would have been found.