Stabenow is a reliably liberal lawmaker who is highly rated by both the League of Conservation Voters and Campaign for American’s Future for her environmental and energy independence records. Which makes her authorship of this bill curious to say the least. Times are tough in Michigan, and elsewhere, but this Hail Mary pass does little to nothing to solve the bigger problems the nation faces.

Baucus, on the other hand, is an environmental and energy wild card. The Helena Democrat earned middling ratings from CAF and LCV of 50 and 42 percent, respectively.

While money in Washington flows like water it’s not evident that any more pressure has been to brought to bear than usual on the Democratic duo to push such a significant weakening of the Kerry-Boxer bill.

Baucus has scooped up more than $2 million from the agribusiness and energy sectors in campaign contributions over his political career but those checks pale in comparison to the nearly $20 million he has cashed from health care, financial services and other lobbying interests.

To the consternation of many on the political left and the right, this sounds an awful lot like Max being Max.

It remains to be seen if an event or date trigger — oh so popular with opponents of health care insurance reform — will be inserted into the Kerry-Boxer bill to thwart Stabenow and Baucus while bringing the debate back to some semblance of environmental sanity.

We’ll post the text of the bill as soon as it becomes available so we can all take a closer look.