Representative Barton drops NSR section from bill on House floor

Washington (Platts)--7Oct2005

Republicans have dropped a controversial section from their latest energy
bill, which the House will vote on Friday. 
     The chief author of the bill, Rep. Joe Barton (Republican-Texas), deleted
from the bill his plan to codify a set of Bush administration's New Source
Review reforms proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency in 2002 and put
on hold by a federal judge in 2003. 
     The changes to NSR, which applies to old coal power plants and other
emitting facilities, would clarify what constitutes "routine maintenance"
under the program. They also would allow plant owners to avoid going through
NSR if they do not increase beyond a "plantwide cap." 
     The bill's main goal is to increase refining capacity by streamlining the
federal permit process in an effort to increase gasoline supplies. The last US
refinery was built in 1976. The legislation would also cap at six the number
of fuels in the US and would require the Federal Trade Commission to define
price gouging. 
     Barton said Thursday that the bill would be joined by a package of tax
incentives and a measure that would allow drilling in part of the Arctic
National Wildlife Refuge and in new areas of the Outer Continental Shelf.
                                   ---Mike Schmidt, mike_schmidt@platts.com

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