A provision forcing President Obama to make a decision about unusual environmental waivers for a proposed oil pipeline was passed in the U.S. Senate today, in exchange for only two months’ extension of unemployed benefits and a delay on a decision about payroll tax cuts. In January, the same drama will begin again, and Republicans, having learned that congressional Democrats will quickly bow to pressure, will be pushing for more drastic concessions.

It just so happens that, on the very same day that Mark Valente gave money to Michael Conaway’s re-election campaign, the Director of Administration for Valente and Associates also gave exactly the same amount of money to Conaway.

U.S. representatives who voted in favor of the Coal Residuals Reusal and Management Act took, on average, more than twice as much money from electrical utilities than representative who voted against the bill. Coal money was even more strongly correlated with the vote. Representatives who voted to approve H.R. 2273 took, on average, seven times as much money from coal mining companies.

Yesterday, Bob Latta introduced H.R. 3185, legislation that would provide a special exemption that would allow electric power plants to violate pollution standards in order to keep more money in their accounts. It strains credulity to assert that it’s only a coincidence that Latta’s top sources of money would profit from Latta’s proposed new law.

Thanks for American Electric Power and and FirstEnergy, the State of Ohio has more coal-fired generating capacity than any other state in the nation. Ohio’s electric sector also has the ignominious honor of ranking FIRST in the amount of toxic air pollution it emitted in 2009, emitting more than 44.5 million pounds of harmful chemicals, which accounted for 65% of the state’s pollution and 12% of toxic pollution from all U.S. power plants.

H.R. 1938, the North American-Made Energy Security Act, would enable a pipeline to snake down from Canada into the United States, threatening a huge range of America’s sensitive ecosystems along the way. The pipeline would run through the Ogllala Aquifer, endangering a huge supply of clean water. What’s more, the oil would come from Alberta’s tar sands, which yield commercially usable oil only through an extremely expensive and inefficient process that creates a massive amount of pollution.

The following are the names of the 99 House Republicans who voted against reducing 8.5 billions of dollars from the federal budget, but then voted to kill 10 million dollars worth of important science, pretending that 10 million dollars would make a significant dent in the deficit.

Why would any Democrats oppose a bill to increase energy efficiency and reduce spending on nuclear weapons, without increasing the federal budget deficit? Ask one of the 66 House Democrats listed here.

Light bulb regulation is constitutionally appropriate, given the role of Congress in regulating commerce. It’s also economically sensible, providing savings to American families, and a respite from the push to build more electrical power plants. Light bulb manufacturers have already made the transition to efficient technologies, and have not suffered as a result. Light bulb regulation has harmed no one, and benefits us all.

Who in Congress voted to increase pollution by offshore drilling operations in the Arctic? Who voted against increasing pollution?