President Bush signs US comprehensive energy
legislation into law
Washington (Platts)--8Aug2005
US President George W. Bush Monday signed into law comprehensive energy
legislation designed to boost domestic energy supplies, encourage conservation
and bolster the nation's electricity grid. Bush signed the legislation at
Department of Energy's Sandia National Laboratory in New Mexico, home state of
the Republican chairman of the Senate Energy Committee, Pete Domenici, and the
top Democrat on the committee, Jeff Bingaman.
The bill, the first comprehensive change in US energy laws in 13 years,
follows four years of work by the Congress, which passed the legislation at
the end of July. The energy law includes about $14.5-bil in tax incentives,
with nearly 60% earmarked toward mature energy industries like oil, gas, coal
and nuclear.
Critics of new law question why these industries are getting tax breaks when
energy prices are at historic highs and they decry the law's failure to
address climate change through mandatory carbon dioxide limits and growing oil
demand through more stringent fuel efficiency standards. Proponents of the law
say it will help boost energy supplies by streamlining some federal permitting
processes and encouraging both new drilling and the development alternative
energy sources through tax relief.
One controversial proposal not included in the energy bill was the proposed
opening of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil and gas
drilling. However, Domenici has said his chamber will vote Sep 13 to include
ANWR drilling in the fiscal 2006 budget reconciliation bill. Budget
reconciliation bills establish broad US spending guidelines for the following
fiscal years. Only a majority vote is needed for passage of a reconciliation
bill in the Senate.
For more news on the energy bill, see the Platts feature at
http://www.platts.com/Oil/Resources/News%20Features/energybill/index.xml
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