US Dems Ready To Move Energy Bill Ahead Despite Objections
>>>36 billion gallon per year biofuel by 2022.<<<
DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
October 4, 2007 7:32 a.m.
(This article was originally published Wednesday)
By Ian Talley
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--While U.S. Democratic congressional leaders said this week they plan to start the reconciliation process between House and Senate energy bills later in the week, they're also prepared to push an energy bill through the chambers without the normal legislative procedure.
The Senate and House earlier this year passed two different energy bills that Democratic leadership hoped to meld together in a conference committee.
But instead, Democrats could craft a single "leadership bill" that has all the elements of both bills - avoiding a conference committee - and introduce that piece of legislation into both chambers for votes.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., had aimed to reconcile the bills soon after Labor Day, but a number of issues have divided the parties, and have sparked political infighting among the Democrats' ranks.
"Before the end of the week, I'm going to move to go to conference on the energy bill," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., told Dow Jones Newswires Tuesday after policy lunches in the Capitol. Aides confirmed he was preparing to name the lawmakers who would work on reconciling the two bills in a conference committee.
A key battle will be a proposed increase in vehicle fuel-efficiency standards. Backed by powerful Detroit automakers such as Ford Motor Co. (F), DaimlerChrysler AG (DAI) and General Motors Corp. (GM), Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., won a crucial skirmish last month when higher fuel standards were dropped from the House energy bill. The Senate has backed tougher fuel standards, which could prevail if Dingell is outnumbered by influential lawmakers who support fuel efficiency.
The energy bill has other flash points, including renewable power and biofuel mandates, and the elimination of tax breaks for oil companies. If an agreement can be successfully negotiated - a daunting exercise given the controversy over each proposal - the resulting legislation would meet many of the major energy principles that the Democratic leadership desires. It also would be a significant departure from more petroleum-friendly policies in previous decades.
Although Reid said he wanted to start the reconciliation process, several Democratic aides close to leadership and at least one lawmaker said they're prepared to bypass the conference. Democrats have already bypassed conferences with health care and lobbying reform bills by crafting new bills that combine elements of both House and Senate versions and then passing the new creation through each chamber.
Despite the delay, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said Tuesday he was "optimistic" about progress on energy bill negotiations.
"We would like to see an energy bill passed and sent to the president before we leave in November," he told reporters in a briefing.
Whether the bill goes to conference "depends entirely if Republicans allow us to launch a formal conference," Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., chairman of a House energy and air quality subcommittee, said in an interview.
Asked if Democratic leaders were prepared to seek a leadership bill that avoided reconciliation of the two energy bills in conference, Boucher said, "It is a an avenue to achieving agreement."
Jim Manley, spokesman for the Senate majority leader's office, said Reid and Pelosi met late Tuesday night and discussed options for moving the energy bills ahead.
He said there was, as yet, "no hard and fast plan how it's going to be done," but even if Republicans obstructed the naming of conferees, "Where there's a will, there's a way."
Pete Domenici, R-N.M., ranking member of the Senate Energy and Commerce Committee, and Minority Whip Trent Lott, R-Miss., said they would be willing to support a move toward conference.
"I'll tell Sen. (Jeff) Bingaman today (Tuesday) that if he's interested in pushing, I'll join," Domenici told Dow Jones Newswires. Bingaman, D-N.M., is the chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee. "I think the Democrats ought to try harder to see if they can get us to work with them," he said, adding, "There may be some way to get together on how we would go to conference."
Asked whether Republicans were holding up the conference, Lott said, "not that I know of."
Reid said Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., had conducted a survey of Republicans and found "they want to go to conference on this."
Both a conference and a leadership bill would still face a number of procedural hurdles, with several opportunities to filibuster in the Senate and tough votes in the House.
The Senate energy bill would set a 36-billion-gallon-a-year biofuel mandate by 2022, up from 8.5 billion gallons in 2008. The House energy bill would require that 15% of all electricity sold by utilities come from renewable sources such as wind and solar power by 2020. Up to 4% of that amount could come from energy-efficiency savings. The House bill would also cut more than $16 billion in tax breaks for oil companies.
The renewable-power proposal has proved nearly as divisive for Democrats as fuel-economy standards. Lawmakers from states mainly in the south that don't have renewable-power mandates or have weaker standards than those proposed, say they don't have adequate wind resources compared to other states, and that their utilities would have to purchase renewable-energy credits to make up the shortfall. Twenty-four states and the District of Columbia have renewable electricity mandates. The Senate dropped a renewable-power provision in its bill after strong opposition from Domenici.
A renewable-power mandate would impact investor-owned utilities, particularly southern utilities like Duke Energy Corp. (DUK), Southern Co. (SO) and Entergy Corp. (ETR). It could benefit renewable energy companies such as Conergy AG (CGY.XE), Siemens AG (SI), Renewable Energy Corp. (REC.OS), and Vestas Wind Systems AS (VWSYF). |
