S 517. National Energy Plan/Vote to Table (Kill) an Amendment Designed to Prevent Burning of Environmentally- Damaging Solid Waste.
The Democratic energy plan as proposed permitted burning solid waste--such as in a municipal garbage dump--as a form of "biomass" or "renewable energy." Progressives saw this as slight-of-hand to skirt pro-environmental provisions elsewhere in the law. Fitzgerald (R-IL) proposed an amendment to strike this element of the bill, but Bingaman (D-NM) brought a motion to table (kill) the amendment. A vote in favor of this motion was therefore a vote against Fitzgerald's amendment and so a vote against the Progressive position. The motion passed, 50-46, and the amendment fell.