The Senate passed a wide-ranging energy bill on June 21 that
would slash US oil consumption by mandating the largest increase
in fuel economy standards for cars, trucks and sport utility
vehicles in more than 20 years. It would also require a huge
amount of ethanol and other renewable biofuels -- 36 billion
gallons -- to be blended into gasoline and home heating fuels
over the course of the next 15 years.
This bill starts America on a path toward reducing our
reliance on oil.
--Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid
The bill (HR 6), which the Senate's Democratic leaders
cobbled together from several stand-alone measures that passed
out of committees earlier this year, was approved late at night
on June 21 by a vote of 65-27. But the actual margin of victory
was much closer, as an earlier procedural motion to cut off
debate on the bill, known as invoking cloture, squeaked by with
only two votes to spare.
"Tonight's vote was a victory for the American people," said
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Democrat-Nevada, after the
bill passed just before midnight. "This bill starts America on a
path toward reducing our reliance on oil."
Many Republicans initially opposed the bill when floor debate
began two weeks previous, saying it overemphasized conservation
and gave short-shrift to additional oil and natural gas drilling
and other forms of energy production. Some Republicans,
including Senator Jim Bunning of Kentucky, maintained that
position until the very end.
"The Democrats' extreme policies will make the American
economy less competitive, cost many men and women their jobs,
and waste more of their hard-earned money on higher gasoline and
utility prices," Bunning said.
But some of that GOP resistance began to subside the morning
of June 21, when Republicans managed to beat back a Democratic
amendment that would have stripped large US oil companies of
more than $28 billion in tax breaks over the next 10 years. The
amendment, which was voted out of the Finance Committee earlier
in the week, sought to re-direct the oil-industry subsidies to
manufacturers of ethanol and other non-petroleum biofuels, as
well as to producers of wind, solar and other forms of renewable
energy.
But Republicans argued that the measure would raise gasoline
prices and cost Americans jobs. "Are we never going to learn?"
lamented Senator Trent Lott, Republican-Mississippi. "When you
tax something, you get less!"
Democrats came very close to marrying the tax package to the
underlying bill, as 10 Republicans broke party ranks and voted
to do so. But they fell just short of garnering the 60 votes
that were required to cut off debate on the measure, in part
because Senator Mary Landrieu, a Louisiana Democrat who has
close ties to oil companies that drill in the Gulf of Mexico,
sided with Republicans to oppose the plan.
"It was not something she can support," said Adam Sharp, a
spokesman for Landrieu. The tax package would have deprived
Louisiana and other Gulf Coast states of revenues that they need
to recover from hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Sharp said.
Still, top Democrats lambasted Republicans for derailing the
tax provision. "We have $3-a-gallon gas, and their response is
to help out big oil," said Senator Charles Schumer, Democrat-New
York.
Created: June 25, 2007
