In my humble opinion, 48-36 does not appear to be a sound defeat. It is utterly embarrassing, if not frightening, to think there is even one dim bulb in our nation's capital who would vote for such "comrade" legislation.

I say dim bulbs, but I probably err. In actuality, they are more likely cunning and designing office holders whose lust for power can't even be imagined by those whose good hearts make it impossible to comphrehend such wickedness.

I'm glad this tax was defeated, but it tells me that over one third of our senators want to sell out our country to the rest of the world. In the past this vote by the thirty six may have been considered an act of sedition if not out right treasonous. The U.S. in a soverign country, let's keep it that way.

The comments that follow may jump around a lot, but there is a lot of information that the general public is just plain ignorant of.

The American people including our senators and congressmen have been brainwashed by the environmental nazis. While most of the developing world, to include China & India are belching pollution into the air (and using leaded gasoline) the U.S. has been cleaning up its act since the late sixties/early seventies. (You can't even buy leaded gasoline here and haven't been able to since the early nineties... unleaded gasoline and unleaded vehicles were made widely available beginning in 1978.) Yes we use a lot of energy, but we also supply a lot to the rest of the world.

 Kyoto = making the nations that try to clean up their environment pay for the ones who are polluting even more; ---I don't think so. ---

If Saudi Arabia and the rest of OPEC don't want to cooperate, quit selling them military hardware and wheat. (Let them eat sand and drink their oil and they can throw rocks and kick sand in each others face).

 Who's really at fault for the cost of a gallon of gas? Ultimately the number one culprit is our own government due to our leaders bowing down to the environmentalist's agenda. We have more oil & natural gas than Saudi does and more coal than probably any other nation. Last I checked, it only cost Saudi Arabia $4.00 to produce one barrel of oil. What's the cost of a gallon of gas in Saudi? 91 cents per gallon (Kuwait .78, Egypt .65, Nigeria .38, and in Venezuela it only cost 12 cents a gallon). Prices that make you go uumm. Yes, you may say what about Europe? Well... a large part of their cost is taxes and they are not sitting on the resources we are.

The following was copied in part from    http://www.earthpolicy.org/Books/PB2/PB2ch2_ss4.htm

Since 1973, however, the relative values of wheat and oil have shifted dramatically. In 2005, it took 13 bushels of wheat to buy a barrel of oil. The two countries most affected by this dramatic shift are the leading exporters of these two commodities: the United States and Saudi Arabia. 33

The United States, both the largest importer of oil and the largest exporter of grain, is paying dearly for this shift in the wheat-oil exchange rate. The 13-fold shift since 1973 is contributing to the largest U.S. trade deficit in history and a record external debt. In contrast, Saudi Arabia—the world’s leading oil exporter and a leading grain importer—is benefiting handsomely. 34

While the exchange rate between grain and oil was deteriorating, U.S. oil imports were climbing. During the early 1970s, before the OPEC oil price hikes, the United States largely could pay its oil import bill with grain exports. But in 2004, grain exports covered only 13 percent of the staggering U.S. oil import bill of $132 billion. 35

The first big adjustment between oil and wheat came when OPEC tripled the price of oil at the end of 1973. During 1974–78, it took roughly three bushels of wheat to buy a barrel of oil. Then after the second OPEC oil price hike, which boosted oil from $13 per barrel in 1978 to $30 in 1980, it took eight bushels of wheat to buy a barrel of oil. 36

 In conclusion I would just like to point out that the U.S.A. does not need to import oil. We have enough resources here to not only support ourselves, but to sell to the rest of the world. Let's build lots of oil refineries, nuclear plants (France utilizing nuclear energy to produces 80% of their energy needs), and coal fired plants. While we do that let's continue to develope new cleaner forms of energy and at the same time develope more efficient forms of converting that energy to power for use in our vehicles and industry.                                                                         

P.S.

I am a staunch supporter of U.S. energy independence. (drill here, drill now, pay less) Pro oil, gas, coal, nuclear, hydrogen, hybid, electric, solar and some biofuels i.e. used cooking oils from restaurants. --- Ethanol on the other hand sucks...less power and just takes away food from the people (my hemi hates even the 10% added to some brands of gasoline). By the way, even if you farm every arable acre of land in the U.S. for ethanol production it still wouldn't supply our energy needs.

Remember that Carbon Belch day in June 12th. I could add more, but that should suffice for now.