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Senate Energy Bill: Could Be Better, Could Be Worse

June 29, 2005

Congress lately has not been in the habit of forward thinking about energy, but if you browse the Senate energy bill closely, you'll find a few keepers. One is the renewable energy portfolio standard, which requires utilities to obtain at least 10 percent of their electricity supply from renewable energy sources, such as wind, solar, and biofuels.

About 40 percent of the bill's tax incentives are directed toward energy efficiency, renewable energy, and non-petroleum alternatives to petroleum. The Senate bill includes tax breaks for buying energy-efficient homes, appliances, hybrid-electric cars, and solar photovoltaic equipment.

Compared to the House version of the energy bill, the Senate's legislation is better for America. Considering the content of the House bill, which ties our energy future tightly to ever more dangerous dependence on oil - that's not saying a whole lot.

The Senate rejected aggressive steps to improve motor vehicle fuel economy standards, the single most important move Congress could take to reduce our nation's dangerous dependence on oil. The Senate also turned aside adding the McCain-Lieberman Climate Stewardship Act to the bill, settling instead for a resolution that acknowledges global warming science and the need to adopt greenhouse gas emissions limits, a policy that science-challenged leaders in the House refuse even to discuss.

The next step is for the Senate and House to try to reconcile their competing bills in a conference committee. If the Senate can coax a hostile House into keeping the renewable energy standard and if clean energy gets a fair shake of the tax breaks in the final product, we will have taken a few halting steps forward.