By wplog

Published Thursday, Dec. 13, 2007 | 10:51 a.m.

Updated Thursday, Oct. 30, 2008 | 2:14 p.m.

WASHINGTON — Dan Geary flipped the TV on at 6 a.m. Thursday morning, glued to C-SPAN2.

He pulled his two teenage daughters into the room to watch history in the making, as he put it, before sending them off to high school.

For environmentalists, it was a day they had been waiting for: Congress was poised to pass legislation to raise the fuel efficiency standards for automobiles for the first time in 30 years.

The House had already passed the Democrats’ sweeping energy bill with the new auto rules.

But Senate Democrats were forced to gut other provisions in the face of Republican opposition and President Bush’s veto.

Gone was a national requirement setting a minimum amount of energy that must come from renewable sources, similar to the one Nevada and other states have. Gone were the tax breaks for the solar, wind and geothermal companies, which need the financial help to set up shop in states like Nevada – it fell one vote shy of a crossing a procedural vote to move forward.

In many circles, the pared down bill is another sign of Democrats caving this session of Congress. But Geary, who is Nevada’s representative of the National Environmental Trust, remained upbeat — a glass half-full kind of guy. The agreement to raise fuel standards to 35 mpg on average by 2020 was accepted by the automotive industry, and seemed poised to hold. Even more importantly, it was a bill that just might get signed into law.

“I have all of my fingers crossed,” he said by phone that afternoon from Las Vegas. “This is a very important and historic day.”

By dinner time on the East Coast, the bill was breezing through the Senate 86-8, and school was just letting out in Nevada.