The Great Lakes Zephyr - Wind Energy & Hydrogen Journal

Date: Mon, 28 Jul 2003 15:10:55 -0700 (PDT)
From: Green Bean
Subject: Massive energy bill lumbers to Senate floor

Massive energy bill lumbers to Senate floor this week

By Gail Russell Chaddock
The Christian Science Monitor

WASHINGTON — With 392 possible amendments in the
wings, the Senate this week takes on the biggest
overhaul of energy policy in a decade — and aims to
wrap it up within a matter of days.

It's a huge and highly complex bill, covering
everything from pilot programs for bicycles to the
first incentives for new nuclear-power production in a
quarter-century.

With natural-gas prices soaring, everyone agrees a new
national strategy on energy is needed. But winning
consensus on such a massive bill has never been easy.
The fights over energy are often regional, rather than
partisan. They involve clashes among some of the most
powerful corporate and environmental groups in
Washington. And the process often fails of its own
weight.

Unlike last year's energy bill, which was drafted on
the floor of the Senate and foundered in conference,
this bill is the result of carefully calibrated
back-room negotiations, mainly involving GOP
lawmakers.

The Senate bill includes more than $35.5 billion for
research and development, including $1.7 billion for
nuclear energy, $2 billion for clean coal and $1.8
billion for President Bush's hydrogen fuel-cell
initiative. It authorizes a new natural-gas pipeline
from Alaska and eases permits for oil and gas
exploration. At least $15.5 billion in tax incentives
for energy efficiency, renewable energy, clean coal
and natural gas are expected to be added this week on
the Senate floor.

Early on, Republicans ruled out issues that have been
the most divisive in the past, such as drilling in the
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. But that issue could
come up in final negotiations between the House and
Senate.

New regulations mandating the use of 5 billion gallons
of renewable-fuel additives in gasoline also gave the
bill an early lift. The boost for ethanol is a high
priority for corn-belt Democrats, who are now expected
to support the bill.

Republicans also deliberately backed the bill up
against the August recess, one of the most inflexible
dates on the Senate calendar. Majority Leader Bill
Frist of Tennessee says he will not allow the Senate
to recess without an agreement on energy.

"We simply must diversify our sources of energy, and
we must do so in a way that lessens our dependence on
foreign sources for this energy," he said last week.

Environmental activists say it's a formula for bad
legislation.

"It will be very difficult to vote against an energy
bill. There are lots of things in this bill that most
people don't know about that need to be addressed,"
says Robert Perks, spokesman for the Natural Resources
Defense Council, which opposes the bill.

Environmentalists worry that the Senate bill, as well
as the House bill, which passed last April, are too
heavily weighted toward traditional polluting
industries, and not enough toward renewable fuels,
such as wind, waves, biomass, ethanol, solar and
geothermal power.

Two-thirds of the tax incentives in the House bill
were directed toward oil, coal and nuclear interests,
they note. In addition, new measures to expedite
permits for oil exploration and drilling on public
lands will cut the public out of the process and
increase destruction, they say.

"The Senate should scrap the energy bill and come back
with more 21st-century solutions, especially raising
fuel-economy standards," said Brendan Bell of the
Sierra Club.

Democrats concede they may not have the votes to block
an energy bill this year or even the will to do so.
But they insist the issues are sufficiently complex
and important to warrant more time.

"Our senators have legitimate concerns and need to
have an opportunity to have fair and serious
consideration of their amendments," said Bill Wicker,
a spokesman for the Democrats on the Energy Committee.


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