Pelosi's scorecard

Tuesday, August 7, 2007

IT'S HARD not to root for a hometown player who has made it so big, but some San Franciscans have been a little disappointed lately with our representative, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. We're especially disappointed with the outcome of two recent big bills, one supposedly having to do with farms and the other supposedly having to do with energy. The Democratic-led House had an opportunity to push forward real solutions on long-standing problems that nearly every American recognizes as wasteful (in the case of trade-distorting, obesity-producing farm subsidies to often-wealthy commodity farmers) and destructive (continued government assistance and encouragement for fossil-fuel industries in the face of global warming). But when it came time to make changes, the Democrats only tinkered at the margins.

The energy bill cuts $16 billion in tax breaks for the oil and gas industry and requires electric utilities to produce 15 percent of their power from renewable fuels by 2020, but there's nary a word about increasing federal fuel economy standards. With the price of oil tipping over the $70-a-barrel mark, ending tax breaks for this industry is a much-needed change, but it's no rousing victory. Increased federal fuel standards are what will make a real difference in the fight against global warming. And the farm bill? It throws a little change at California's fruit-and-nut farmers, but without dismantling the subsidies that have landed America in hot water with the World Trade Organization, it might as well be called the "Continued Welfare for Wealthy Farmers" bill.

Which leads us back to Pelosi - are we disappointed with her failure to produce the results we know she agrees with because she has failed as a leader? Or does her record merely look disappointing because our expectations have been so high?

Pelosi has been lobbying hard to contain a diverse coalition, and she has had to make big compromises. Sustaining the subsidies in the farm bill was an unfortunate bid to keep farm-state Democrats happy (even President Bush pushed for larger reforms) and she has rightly taken much heat for it. But she may redeem that mistake with the energy bill - it does include a renewable energy requirement, and she has made no secret of her goal to include tougher efficiency standards in a conference bill when the House and Senate combine their versions. We hope her savvy tactical skills carry that goal through.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/08/07/ED8SRDQ6K1.DTL