Jean Chemnick at Energy & Environment News this morning reported on a Center for American Progress event yesterday, during which U.S. Representative Henry Waxman made an eye-catching claim about the politics of energy rationing. According to Waxman, the conventional wisdom that “energy and environmental issues are more regional than partisan” is wrong, because “there is now a starker divide between the parties on environmental issues than at any time during my career.”

The record suggests otherwise. Consider,

• On June 6 2008, in the immediate wake of the Senate’s rejection of the Lieberman-Warner cap-and-trade, 10 Senate Democrats—about 20 percent of the caucus—sent Senator Barbara Boxer a letter explaining that they voted or would have voted against the “solution” to the supposed problem of climate change because it would cause “undue hardship” for their constituents.
• On June 26 2009, forty Democrats in the House of Representatives voted against the American Clean Energy and Security Act, a cap-and-trade energy rationing bill co-written by Henry Waxman.
• During the 2010 summer, Senate Democrats held weekly caucus meetings trying to build support for a Senate companion bill to the American Clean Energy and Security Act. They failed (spectacularly), because few Senators were willing to vote for an energy tax during a recession.

Quote contrary to what Rep. Henry Waxman would have you believe, Congressional opposition to expensive energy climate “solutions” is bi-partisan.