Climate change isn't going to be free. A report by Point Carbon, an independent consulting company that tracks global carbon and energy markets, estimates that U.S. climate legislation could push the price at the pump 13 cents a gallon higher. The increase would result from the cost to oil companies for carbon permits, which they can pass along to consumers.

This is a much rosier view than that of the oil industry, however, which believes a U.S. cap-and-trade system would thrash demand for gasoline and lead to the shuttering of many refineries.

The American people are mad as hell at all the money that has been given to who knows who. So Senators Bernie Sanders, Russ Feingold, Jim Webb and Jim Bunning sponsored an amendment to a budget blueprint to get at more transparency as to where all this money is going. Bernie Sanders is quoted as saying: " The American people have the right to know who the Fed is lending taxpayer dollars to, how much they are getting and what the Fed is asking in return for the money."

The amendment calls on the Fed to identify each firm it has given assistance to, how much the assistance was worth and what the firm is doing with the money. It is important to note that the amendment passed by a vote of 59 to 39. In other words over half the Senate is leaning on the Fed for more information about what they are doing.

Following's Wednesday's 244-188 House vote -- one in which, despite President Obama's efforts to cultivate Republican ideas, every House Republican voted against it -- the focus on the stimulus package shifts to the Senate, where plan revisions are likely.

Assuming Senate passage, any differences between the two versions would have to be resolved in a conference committee.

Republicans are complaining that the bill has too many traditional Democratic-constituency-based programs and 'pork,' while some Democrats are concerned the bill does not contain enough spending - - in particular infrastructure spending, to create jobs the U.S. economy needs. The U.S. economy lost more than 2.6 million jobs in 2008 -- including 1 million in the past two months -- and the nation's unemployment rate has soared to 7.2%.

The Senate is expected today to vote on the revised, second $350 billion TARP allotment, while the House Speaker also indicated she expects the U.S. Congress to approve the measure.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, indicated to ABCNews that Congress would approve President-elect Barack Obama's request for another $350 billion in bailout / rescue funds because this time it will be spent by "a president who will enforce the law." The House vote is expected to be close, however.

To block Obama's request, both the House and Senate must vote to withhold the money, assuming each chamber has the two-thirds vote to override a potential Obama veto.

On Wednesday, Senate Republicans won assurances from Obama administration officials that the administration would use the money for financial institutions, not for aid to auto manufacturers and other industries, Bloomberg News reported. Republicans have criticized the Bush administration's decision to lend $13.4 billion to assist the recovery of General Motors (NYSE: GM) and Chrysler.

Is tracking TARP money feasible?

Both Senate and House lawmakers have called on greater accountability and transparency to 'verify and track' where the money is going, but economist David H. Wang said that isn't feasible.

In a high stakes game of chicken this past week, the Senate GOP and UAW leadership could not agree on setting a date certain for cutting members wages and the hard-line senators would not accept anything less. (See Auto 'support fund': Senate & UAW clash.)

One of the ironies of the proposed, and not passed, Federal bailout, or support fund, as I have begun to call it, depending on your point of view, is that the proposed $14 billion is more than the value Wall Street currently places on the two companies.

General Motors (NYSE: GM) closed Friday at $3.94, down $0.18 or 4.37%, with a capitalization of $2.4 billion. Ford (NYSE: F) closed at $3.04, up $0.14 or4.83%, with a capitalization of $7.04 billion. The combined value therefore is $9.44 billion; yes folks, another Washington bargain!

While world markets sank on the news of the failed talks, U.S. investors yawned and were unimpressed with activity in foreign markets -- all three of the major indices ended up for the day. Perhaps that's because temporarily propping up the two companies by spending more than they're worth made no sense to anyone outside Washington D.C. or Detroit.

Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private investment company and the principal for design and research at an architecture and planning firm. He writes the columns Chasing Value and Serious Money. Disclosure: I do not own shares of GM or Ford.

Well yesterday's operative word was "might" as in the congress might pass a bill to support the auto industry and prevent the potential bankruptcy of General Motors (NYSE: GM), Ford (NYSE: F) and privately held Chrysler. Things have changed and for now might has become won't -- as in nothing doing!

Republicans in the Senate clashed with the UAW, Democrats and the White House over a thinly viable plan to provide a $14 billion aid package to forestall industry collapse and give all sides the opportunity to improve a bad situation in the first quarter of 2009 under certain conditions.

The breaking point was the UAW's refusal to agree to immediate wage cuts. While headlines pronounce the deal dead, I say let's wait and see. After all this is Washington, DC, where any reasonable facsimile of the truth has a high probability of being posturing and pretending.

I have been following this saga all week and three days ago I posted Auto industry bailout: A bloated government to lead a bloated industry, when I did not see an easy solution for such institutionalized problems - on all sides. This was followed by Auto industry bailout: Oil companies should take over!, a very provocative suggestion that brought a multitude of comments from our readers, taking the bait. In a more congenial mood I continued with Auto industry bailout: Can't we all just get along? yesterday hopeful some good might come out of intense negotiations in the Capital. Intense yes, successful no, or at least not yet.

First Solar (NASDAQ: FSLR - option chain) shares are rising today with other solar stocks after the US Senate approved a tax bill yesterday afternoon that extended $18 billion worth of tax credits to producers of alternative energy, including wind and solar power. If you think that the stock won't fall by too much in the coming months, then now could be a good time to look at a bullish hedged trade on FSLR.

FSLR opened this morning at $220.80. So far today the stock has hit a low of $218.02 and a high of $229.39. As of 12:45, FSLR is trading at $225.32, up $14.43 (6.8%). The chart for FSLR looks bullish and S&P gives FSLR a positive 4 STARS (out of 5) buy ranking.

For a bullish hedged play on this stock, I would consider an October bull-put credit spread below the $170 range. A bull-put credit spread is an options position that combines the purchase and sale of put options to hedge risk in case the stock doesn't do what you think but still leverage nice returns. For this particular trade, we will make a 7.5% return in just three weeks as long as FSLR is above $170 at October expiration. First Solar would have to fall by more than 24% before we would start to lose money. Learn more about this type of trade here.

Monday, May 19

• Lowe's Companies (NYSE: LOW) to report Q1 earnings; conference call scheduled for 9:00am.
• Campbell Soup Company (NYSE: CPB) to report Q3 earnings; Conference call scheduled for 10:00am.

Tuesday, May 20

• Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing on Global Internet Freedom & Corporate Responsibilty at 10:00am. Appearing: Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) and Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO).
• Medtronic, Inc. (NYSE: MDT) to report Q4 earnings; conference call scheduled for 8:00am.
• Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE: HPQ) to report Q2 earnings; conference call scheduled for 5:00pm.

American President George Bush announced his new budget spending plan today, and the package came out to a total of $3.1 trillion.

Today's federal budget proposal marks the first time in America's history that a budget plan has been in excess of $3 trillion. Bush claims that his budget is "good" and "solid" and that the passing of this budget will help keep the troubled American economy growing.

All in all, this budget looks to lift government spending by 6% during the fiscal year 2009, and it will probably come to no one's surprise that defense gets a nice little boost from today's budget. Bush is looking to allocate 8.2% of his spending on security, and the budget is looking to stake a $70 billion "placeholder" for war costs during 2009. The Pentagon should be pleased with its figures, as Bush is looking to allocate $515.4 billion its way... the highest allocation since WWII (and represents a 7.5% jump).

In 1908, a Ford Model-T traveled 25 miles on a gallon of gasoline. In an attempt to return to those halcyon days, the U.S. voted late Thursday night to pass a new energy bill that sets lofty CAFE goals for the American car fleet.

Along with mandating a fleet average of 35 mpg by 2020 and energy-efficient appliances and lights, the measure will require the fuel industry to raise ethanol production to 36 billion gallons by 2022. Slightly less than 5 billion gallons were produced in 2006.

The first engine to use ethanol as a fuel was built in 1826.

In recognition of the damage to the nation's grain crop prices that increased ethanol production would wreak if it were based on corn, the measure mandates that most of that increase come from cellulose (think wood pulp).

The auto industry, in an embarrassing admission of its continuing inability to forecast consumer demand (if you remember its attitude about the Volkswagen Beetle in the 1960's, you know what I mean), was prepared to filibuster the bill, but the Senate was able to garner enough votes to override. However, the Republicans were able to use this lever to pry out of the bill language that would have taxed the petroleum industry to create a fund a program promoting fuel efficiency. They also were successful in removing a requirement that 15% of the nation's electricity be generated via windmills, solar power and the like.

President Bush's approval on the bill is still in question, though, as he opposes many of the measures including one allowing the government to punish companies found guilty of price-gouging.

In many arenas, the Republican and Democratic parties have little to distinguish between them, but this bill sharply differentiates their approach to the energy problem. This compromise seems to me seems, a strong vote for more of the same policies that have maintained the status quo for generations.