A handful of senators will decide whether our economy is saddled with yet another ruinous overlay of federal command-and-control regulation and a new round of taxes, including Graham’s push for higher gas taxes. The Graham-Lieberman-Kerry bill will need 61 votes to get past cloture and to the floor. As with Obamacare, if it passes the Senate count on the House just passing whatever is sent its way because of the looming rebuke in November. Thus it has to be stopped now.

The Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder reviews some of the politics behind the new scheme to raise taxes and saddle the energy sector with job-destroying mandates.

In addition to Graham, the Republicans from Maine, Senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe may be inclined to vote for cloture and should receive respectful requests not to do so via phone and e-mail. Ambinder suggests that Republicans Richard Lugar of Indiana, Scott Brown of Massachusetts and George LeMieux of Florida might also be leaning towards allowing the energy tax to proceed. All of them can be reached via the Capital switchboard –202-225-3121. Beyond that, there are divisions among Democrats in the Senate over the approach, (more here), and here is a list of Democratic senators who might refuse to join their big government colleagues on this proposal:

Mark Begich–Alaska
D.C. phone: 202 224-3004
Anchorage: 907 271 – 5915
E-mail

Blanche Lincoln–Arkansas
D.C. phone: 202-224-4843
Little Rock: 501-375-2993
E-mail

Michael Bennet–Colorado
D.C. phone: 202-224-5852
Colorado: 866-455-9866
Denver: 303-455-7600
E-mail

Ben Nelson-Nebraska
D.C. phone: 202-224-6551
Omaha: 402 391-3411
E-mail

Kent Conrad-North Dakota
D.C. Phone: 202 224-2043
Fargo: 701 232-8030
E-mail

Byron Dorgan-North Dakota
D.C. phone: 202 224-2551
Fargo:800 666-4482
E-mail