The ACES bill passed -- whew, what a relief! That was the sentiment early this week, but after taking a closer look at just how close the vote really was and how hard it was to get there, realization quickly set in that the battle of passing a bill in the Senate was just beginning.

That the 219-212 vote was close is obvious, but it’s even more sobering to examine how much work it took to get those votes. While we were overloading the congressional switchboard with calls and faxes to our reps. House leadership was hard at work, too. Not taking ‘no’ for an answer, every member with a probable yes-vote was dragged to the floor to secure a winning number. The Hill reports:

Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.) was pulled out of rehab to register his “yes” vote. Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), recovering from back surgery, was seen walking gingerly before the vote.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.), whose wife had pleaded guilty to bribery charges on Friday in Detroit, was in the lower chamber and ultimately voted for the climate change bill.

Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.) was getting married the next day and needed to sign papers to resign her House seat after being confirmed by the Senate on Thursday for her new job at the State Department. Tauscher not only was in the House on Friday, she served as the presiding officer of the heated and partisan debate.

The efforts were clearly successful, and when Republican House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) realized there weren’t enough votes to defeat the bill he held up voting to make sure his opinion on the contents of the bill was heard, speaking for almost an hour. Says Boehner:

Hey, people deserve to know what’s in this pile of sh—t.”

Stay classy, Mr. Boehner.

In case you didn’t get to watch all 6 hours of debate last Friday, check out this much-abbreviated version.

Moving right along, I think it’s safe to say that we have gained a vote in Al Franken (D-MN) for the Senate climate bill when the time comes – he supports legislation to cap emissions and believes it will create thousands of green jobs in MN.

So far, action in the Senate consists of a lot of talk, and the passage of an energy bill from the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. The bill:

would require utilities to generate 15 percent of electricity from renewable sources by 2021. The legislation also would require an inventory of outer continental shelf energy resources and allow offshore drilling off Florida’s Gulf Coast.

Aiming for action and broad support in the fall, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV):

intends to couple a package of bipartisan energy provisions passed by Bingaman’s committee with the controversial cap-and-trade bill that will be drafted by the Environment and Public Works Committee, chaired by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.)

In other news, Actress Daryl Hannah recounts on HuffPost her experience in West Virginia, protesting mountaintop removal (MTR), and hearing from residents:

Coal companies have literally blown up over 500 mountain tops to access the coal seams and then dumped the refuse into the valleys below, killing over 3000 miles of headwater streams. The EPA just gave the go ahead for an additional 42 mountaintops to be blown off with another 6 permits pending.

According to WVU's institute for health policy research, coal county residents are more likely to suffer from chronic heart, lung and kidney diseases, cancers and generally suffer from excess numbers of premature death. There's a high cancer risk for up to 1 out of every 50 Americans living near the more than 100 billion gallons of toxic sludge in the clay-lined and unlined (the majority unlined) coal ash landfills and slurry ponds

In 2005 one student died from ovarian cancer at age seventeen and another is still battling ovarian cancer.

The blog contains statements from WV residents suffering the consequences of living and working near areas that practice MTR. It is definitely worth reading. For more information about mountaintop removal and what you can do about it, visit iLoveMountains.org.