Key
Provisions of US Senate Energy Bill
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USA: June 28, 2005 |
WASHINGTON - The US Senate is scheduled to vote on Tuesday on a $14 billion bill that would boost domestic production of oil, natural gas, coal, nuclear and alternative energy sources.
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The House of Representatives in April approved a separate energy bill. The House and Senate versions must be reconciled before a bill can be sent to President George W. Bush. Negotiations between the Senate and House to work out a final energy package are expected to take place during July. Key provisions of the Senate bill include:
* Direct the president to reduce US oil demand by 1 million barrels a day by 2015. * Require a federal inventory of oil and natural gas reserves in US offshore waters, including areas where energy exploration is now banned. * Provide incentives for natural gas production from deep wells in the shallow waters of the Gulf of Mexico. * Streamline leasing and permitting rules for tar sands, Outer Continental Shelf, oil shale drilling projects. * Increase capacity of the US emergency oil reserve to 1 billion barrels from the current 700 million barrels.
* Impose reliability operating standards on utilities to protect the US electric grid from blackouts. * Give Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, not the states, exclusive authority to approve new liquefied natural gas import terminals. * Boost FERC civil penalties for companies that manipulate electricity and natural gas markets. * Repeal Public Utility Holding Company Act, which barred certain utility mergers, and give FERC more merger review authority.
* Offer an estimated $2 billion in tax breaks, loans and credits to companies for technology to voluntarily reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Such projects may include coal gasification and carbon sequestration.
* Require US gasoline refiners to double to 8 billion gallons the amount of ethanol additive used by 2012. California will be exempted from the standard during summer months.
* Set standards to reduce energy use by commercial freezers, refrigerators, clothes washers and air conditioning. * Offer $250 million in rebates for energy efficient appliances over five years.
* Offer $200 million a year for technology research to make coal a less-dirty fuel. * Extend federal insurance for nuclear power plant operators through 2025. * Build new nuclear test reactor at Idaho National Laboratory.
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