The USDA announced that this year’s corn yield will be the lowest since 1995. As a result corn prices are projected to reach a record high, between $7.50 to $8.90 a bushel. To add a contrarian anecdote, the corn at my farmer’s market remains steady at 3 ears for $2.00, but that could change as [...]

Democratic Senators Amy Klobuchar and Tim Johnson have taken up the call from President Obama in the State of the Union of a clean energy standard, while calling it a renewable energy standard. Klobuchar and Johnson will introduce legislation on an RES, but she praised the CES idea. In addition, their bill from last year, [...]

There are six Senate committees with jurisdiction over the Kerry/Boxer climate and energy bill, and only one of them – the Environment and Public Works Committee – has passed a version of it (the Natural Resources Committee passed a very narrow bill along the same lines earlier this year). Today both the Finance Committee and [...]

A tiny victory for the social safety net was achieved today, as the House passed the Senate’s version of a bill that will extend unemployment benefits for an additional 14 weeks in the states, and 6 more weeks in those states with unemployment rates over 8.5%. The bill also extends and expands the homebuyer tax [...]

Late last night, in the midst of Election Day, the House leadership revealed the “manager’s amendment” that would represent the final changes to their health care bill before a vote. It is likely this vote could come as early as Friday. Nancy Pelosi released this statement. Tonight, we have filed a manager’s amendment to the [...]