A U.S. House Committee kicks off a four day series of hearings today on global warming legislation, an issue that's sure to kick up some partisan dust in coming months.

What supporters want is the Congress to legislate new controls on climate change/greenhouse gases/global warming pollutants, mainly by placing new limits on heavy industry, power plants and automobiles.

This is related to the debate over the so-called "cap and trade" plan offered up by Democrats, which has been denounced as an "energy tax" by critics in both parties.

Basically, companies would have to pay money to be allowed to emit greenhouse gases that are determined to contribute to global warming.

Leading the charge is Rep. Henry Waxman (D-California) whom I expect will push this until its dead and then keep pushing some more in this Congress.

The outlook for this type of legislation right now is not great, even though Democrats control the White House and both houses of the Congress.  Why do I say that?

Well, while such a bill might be able to get through the House, it has a Senate filibuster written all over it.  

And not every Democrat in the Senate is sold on this bill either.  I don't think there would be a majority if we put something to a vote tomorrow.

Democrats had originally wanted to jam this into the budget reconciliation process, because they were going to use money raised from the cap and trade proposal to pay in part for middle class tax relief and more.

One thing that makes this debate extraordinarily difficult is that both sides overhype their own conclusions on global warming and hyperventilate about the overhyped arguments of the other side.

For now, I will avoid writing about the details, knowing full well that someone will accuse me of being a shill for one side or the other, no matter what I write.

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