Jeff Danziger lives in New York City. He is represented by CWS Syndicate and the Washington Post Writers Group. He is the recipient of the Herblock Prize and the Thomas Nast (Landau) Prize. He served in the US Army in Vietnam and was awarded the Bronze Star and the Air Medal. He has published eleven books of cartoons and one novel. Visit him at DanzigerCartoons.com.
Mitch McConnell dragged his feet on the bill, and two Republicans tried to block it, but help finally is on the way for 9/11 first responders.
Almost two weeks after the House passed the 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund Bill, the Senate finally followed suit on Tuesday. After defeating amendments by Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) and Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) — Lee’s would have limited the amount available for the fund, and Paul’s introduced spending cuts to offset the cost of the fund — the Senate passed the bill by a vote of of 97-2. Lee and Paul voted against the bill.
The bill, if Trump signs it into law, will replenish a fund that pays for the health care costs of first responders who rushed to save people on the day of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Before the bill even came to the Senate for a vote, it was marred in controversy as Republicans like Paul and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell seemed reluctant to see the bill pass.
In June, McConnell admitted the bill wasn’t even on his agenda.
“Gosh, I hadn’t looked at that lately,” McConnell said.
McConnell was shamed by comedian and former talk show host Jon Stewart into eventually meeting with 9/11 first responders. Stewart has been a consistent and leading voice to make sure 9/11 first responders are taken care of.
“They did their jobs with courage, grace, tenacity, humility,” Stewart told Congress in July. “Eighteen years later, do yours.”
On July 17, after the House passed the bill, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) tried to pass it through the Senate by unanimous consent. That’s when Paul stood up and objected, claiming the money going into the fund “should be offset by cutting spending.”
Paul’s objection sparked outrage among 9/11 first responders. John Feal, a demolition expert who was injured responding to the attacks, called Paul and Lee “assholes” for their efforts to block the bill. (Lee used a procedural tactic to prevent the bill from passing earlier.)
“They’re hypocrites at best,” Feal told CNN’s “New Day” the day after Paul blocked the bill. “They’re bottom feeders. They’re opportunists.”
“They should be begging for forgiveness for being assholes” and opposing the bill, he added.
Despite Republican obstruction tactics, the bill finally passed both the House and Senate and now heads to Trump for his signature.
Published with permission of The American Independent.
On the average sunny day, Germany’s huge energy grid gets 40 percent of its power from the sun. Guess what happened one recent morning when the sun went into eclipse. Nothing.
Or close to nothing. When the moon hid the sun for a few hours, the backup natural gas and coal plants switched on. The price of electricity rose briefly. That was it. Solar again showed itself to be a reliable energy source under a tough challenge.
Back in the United States, meanwhile, electric companies and various fossil fuel interests are fighting the American public’s growing passion for rooftop solar panels. They’re also doing battle with state laws requiring utilities to get a certain percentage of their power from renewable sources.
Oil, gas, and coal lobbyists, fed by Koch brother checks, are backing a campaign by utilities to slap fees on solar panels. Their target is net metering — the system whereby homes and businesses with solar panels sell their excess electricity back to the grid.
In Arizona, the big utility Salt River Project is adding a $50-a-month surcharge for customers with rooftop solar panels. SRP argues, as do other utilities, that solar customers rely on the grid for backup power when the sun doesn’t shine and should pay for it.
Studies out of Missouri, New York, Texas, Nevada, and Vermont counter that the alleged subsidies to those with solar panels are being offset. After all, solar consumers reduce the amount of power the utilities must provide — especially on hot sunny days, when demand is high. And a price can be put on greenhouse gases that were not emitted.
Big voices in the conservative movement are leading the charge for solar panel taxes. They also liken states’ green energy mandates to Obamacare. The conservative masses, however, don’t seem to be taking the bait. You don’t even have to ask about the liberals.
A power source that is domestic, is pollution-free and costs nothing (once the panels are paid off) — all courtesy of Mr. Sun — would seem to be in our national interests. Also, how interesting that SRP, in super-sunny Arizona, reportedly gets less than 2 percent of its power from solar and wind sources combined.
Huge numbers of Americans have been installing solar panels, thanks to better and cheaper technology. Businesses that stand to lose from this fact have set off clashes in nearly half the states — from Maine to California and Washington to South Carolina.
The utilities weren’t getting much traction in the legislatures — even in such Republican states as Indiana and Utah. So they turned to the public utilities commissions, where they can get a more private hearing.
Pro-solar conservatives hold that taxing solar panels stifles competition. A group called T.U.S.K. (Tell Utilities Solar won’t be Killed) is led by a former congressman named Barry Goldwater Jr. (the son).
Of a plan in Indiana to tax solar panels, one woman wrote, “Indiana’s utilities are interested in keeping us reliant on traditional fuel sources that hurt our national security and weaken our economy.” She would be Roberta Combs, president of the Christian Coalition of America.
So Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell can huff and puff about a “war on coal,” but to little avail. By the way, the domestic solar industry now employs more workers than does coal mining.
The utilities’ distress is understandable, but they can’t win this war. The means of generating energy are undergoing profound change worldwide. The utilities must change their business model or, if they can’t, concede the inevitable. You can’t stop the march of solar power any more than you can stop the sun from rising.
Follow Froma Harrop on Twitter @FromaHarrop. She can be reached at fharrop@gmail.com. To find out more about Froma Harrop and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Web page at www.creators.com.
Photo: Solar panels at the Pittsfield Waste Water Treatment Facility (Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection/Flickr)
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