Dec. 14
A slightly atrophied but still-muscular energy bill finally breezed
through the Senate Dec. 13 -- but only after Democrats reluctantly agreed to
denude it of two of its bolder initiatives.
The legislation, which the House likely will vote on the week of Dec. 17, is
monumental in that it raises fuel economy standards for the first time in 32
years and mandates a six-fold jump in biofuels. The Senate vote was 86-8.
But to avoid Republican filibustering and a White House veto, negotiators
were forced to strip out a pair of major sticking points -- billions of
dollars in taxes on oil companies to fund energy conservation and a
requirement that electric utilities go greener by garnering 15 percent of
their power from wind, solar, biomass and other renewables by 2020. A bill
the House passed resoundingly Dec. 6 included both of those measures.
Front and center is the requirement that automakers increase fleet averages
of cars, vans and sport utility vehicles to 35 miles per gallon by 2020, and
make gradual improvements afterward.
Congress hasn“t acted on federal fuel economy standards since they were
created in 1975. Current standards are 27.7 mpg for passenger cars and 22.2
mpg for light trucks and sport utility vehicles.
Also, 36 billion gallons of corn-based and cellulosic ethanol and other
biofuels would be part of the transportation fuel mix by 2022.
"What we“re going to wind up with is still historic," Senate Majority Leader
Harry Reid of Nevada said Thursday morning before the tax package was sliced
out. The bill had just stalled on a 59-40 vote. Sixty votes were necessary
to overcome a Republican filibuster.
"This bill is ą a tremendous accomplishment," Reid later told reporters
before the final vote. "I“m really happy with what we“re going to be able to
produce."
Despite what was left out, some environmental organizations are heralding
the bill as the most progressive since the 1990 passage of the Clean Air
Act.
"After more than 30 years, Congress is finally poised to reduce our
dangerous oil addiction," said Anna Aurilio, office director for
Washington-based Environment America. "(Legislators) deserve tremendous
credit for breaking the decades-long logjam on fuel economy."
The new fuel economy standards will conserve 1.1 million barrels of oil per
day and save consumers $22 billion in 2020, Aurilio estimates. By 2030, she
added, these standards will reduce annual global warming emissions the
equivalent of taking 77 million of today“s cars off the road.
Aurilio and Gregory Wetstone, spokesman for the American Wind Energy
Association, joined other like-minded groups in lamenting the Senate“s
failure to include a renewable electricity standard. They will continue to
collaborate with congressional leaders on separate federal legislation to
boost renewables.
Nationwide, utilities generate just under 2 percent of electricity from
renewables. Also, about half of the states have already adopted renewable
standards. Most are "renewable portfolio standards," which require a certain
percentage of a utility“s power plant capacity to come from renewable
sources by a given date.
The Edison Electric Institute, which represents investor-owned electric
utilities, guided a multi-million lobbying effort to put the kibosh on a
federal, one-size-fits-all, renewable-electricity standard.
Utilities in the Midwest and Southeast such as Columbus, Ohio-based American
Electric Power and Atlanta-based Southern Co., a holding company for
Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi utilities, claim it would be too costly for
their customers because topography in some regions of the Southeast and
Midwest limits access to renewables such as solar and wind. State officials,
they say, are far better qualified to understand those restrictions and to
set standards.
"It“s not that we“re a “just say no“ utility on this," AEP spokesman Pat
Hemlepp said in a telephone interview. "We feel that a one-size-fits-all
approach is not appropriate. It“s a disadvantage for certain parts of the
country."
The American Petroleum Institute led oil industry opposition to a tax
package that added up to almost $22 billion. Much of that money, $13.5
billion over 10 years, would have come from rolling back tax breaks given to
the country“s five largest oil companies. A Democratic analysis revealed
that figure to be the equivalent of 1.1 percent of the companies“ net
profits.
Those dollars would have financed initiatives such as tax incentives for
researching carbon capture and storage; energy conservation and renewable
energy development; and the manufacture of cellulosic ethanol plants and
flex-fuel vehicles.
After the Senate pared away the tax package, White House spokeswoman Dana
Perino said "things look promising" for President Bush“s signature on the
legislation.
The bill also includes measures to eventually phase out incandescent light
bulbs and bump up efficiency standards for buildings and appliances. For
instance, it has provisions to encourage construction of green government
buildings and schools; to retrofit old federal buildings with
energy-efficient technologies; to establish a carbon sequestration
demonstration project at the coal-burning Capitol Power Plant; and to build
a "solar wall" on the roof of the Energy Department“s downtown Washington
headquarters.
"There is no doubt that America must become less dependent on oil,
particularly from foreign sources," said Sen. Pete Domenici of New Mexico,
ranking Republican of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. "By
passing new, tough fuel economy standards as well as a renewable fuels
standard, we will make major progress toward that goal."
To subscribe or visit go to: http://www.wastenews.com