Energy Bill Passes After Five Years

(ENS) -- "The Energy Policy Act of 2005 is going to help every American who drives to work, every family that pays a power bill, and every small business owner hoping to expand," President George W. Bush said today, as he signed the energy bill at Sandia National Laboratory in Albuquerque.

But House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said, "As oil prices reached another new high today, President Bush signs into law an energy policy that his own Department of Energy says actually increases gas prices."

President Bush stressed the "unprecedented commitment to energy conservation and efficiency" made in the bill, which sets higher efficiency standards for federal buildings and for household products, the bill relies heavily on coal and nuclear energy.

"This bill will allow America to make cleaner and more productive use of our domestic energy resources, including coal, and nuclear power, and oil and natural gas," the President said. "By using these reliable sources to supply more of our energy, we'll reduce our reliance on energy from foreign countries, and that will help this economy grow so people can work."

"The challenge is to develop ways to take advantage of our coal resources while keeping our air clean," said Bush. The bill authorizes new funding for clean coal technology with the goal of building the world's first zero emission coal-fired power plant.

The United States has 103 operating nuclear power plants, but has not built a new nuclear plant since the late 1970s. "We will start building nuclear power plants again by the end of this decade," the President said.

"To coordinate the ordering of new plants, the bill I sign today continues the Nuclear Power 2010 Partnership between government and industry. It also offers a new form of federal risk insurance for the first six builders of new nuclear power plants," Bush said.

The Bush administration and Congressional Republicans took care to avoid mentioning the stalled nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada as moved the energy policy bill forward, a senior Energy Department official told the "Las Vegas Review Journal" on Friday.

The strategy was to avoid stirring Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, a leading critic of the proposed nuclear waste repository who could have caused problems for the bill, one of President Bush's top priorities, said DOE Deputy Secretary Clay Sell.

"Energy politics are tough. Yucca Mountain politics are really tough," said Sell, who called Reid "a tough character to deal with."

"There was a conscious decision not to roll [Yucca Mountain] into the energy bill, and I can't disagree," Sell said.

Senator Reid did not stand in the way of passage of the energy bill, but he does not support the legislation in its final form. Reid says he voted for the Senate version, which included "tax incentives for renewable energy resources, a renewable electricity standard, reducing our dependence on foreign oil, reducing global warming, and installing a federal ban on MTBE," an additive that makes gasoline burn cleaner, but has contaminated groundwater across the country.

"Unfortunately, House Republicans working on the final version of the bill rejected the provisions that would have led us towards energy independence, and I will not support this version of the bill," said Reid. "I believe we have missed an incredible opportunity to establish a renewable electricity standard, provide help to consumers facing record prices at the gas pump, and most importantly, to reduce our dependence on foreign oil."

The legislation pleased Skip Bowman, president and chief executive officer at the Nuclear Energy Institute, who represented the nuclear energy industry at the signing ceremony. "As a result of this legislation we have many of the tools necessary to move forward to new nuclear power plant construction in this country, along with pursuing the potential for the hydrogen economy, protecting our security though enhanced non-proliferation policies, and contributing to better public health and our environment by limiting air emissions."

The energy bill streamlines oil and gas permitting to encourage new exploration in what the President says will be "environmentally sensitive ways."

The bill authorizes research into extracting oil from shale and tar sands. It provides incentives for oil refineries to expand their capacity, and Bush says "that's consumer-friendly. The more supply, the more reliable your gasoline will be and the more -- less pressure on price."

The bill includes tax incentives to encourage new construction of natural gas pipelines and clarifies federal authority to site new receiving terminals for liquified natural gas.

There are some measures in the bill that encourage alternative and renewable energy sources. The bill extends tax credits for wind, biomass, landfill gas and other renewable electricity sources. The bill offers new incentives to promote clean, renewable geothermal energy. It creates a new tax credit for residential solar power systems.

"By developing these innovative technologies," the President said, "we can keep the lights running while protecting the environment and using energy produced right here at home. When you hear us talking about less dependence on foreign sources of energy, one of the ways to become less dependent is to enhance the use of renewable sources of energy."

The legislation includes language that would create an industry-led, self-regulatory organization that will set and enforce mandatory electricity reliability standards throughout North America.

"The bill removes outdated obstacles to investment in electricity transmission lines in generating facilities," said President Bush. "The bill corrects the provision of the law that made electric reliability standards optional instead of mandatory."

The bill directs the federal Transportation Department to study improvements in fuel-efficiency standards for cars and trucks and SUVs, but does not set new efficiency standards.

The legislation will provide up to $3,400 per vehicle in tax credits to consumers for purchase of energy-efficient hybrid, clean-diesel, and fuel-cell vehicles based on their fuel savings potential.

The bill also expands research into developing hydrogen technologies and establishes a flexible, national Renewable Fuels Standard to encourage greater use of renewable fuels like ethanol and biodiesel.

Senator Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico, a Democrat who co-chairs the Senate Energy Committee with fellow New Mexican Republican Pete Domenici, said the bill will help Native Americans. The bill creates an Office of Indian Energy Policy & Programs at the Department of Energy that will use grants, technical assistance, and loan guarantees to assist Pueblos and Tribes with the production of energy resources; increasing the supply of electricity to Indian homes and businesses; and managing energy development and use in a manner that protects tribal lands and communities.

"This new energy policy will give Indian Country a voice at the Department of Energy and will help tribes cut through the bureaucracy that has held up energy development on Indian lands," Bingaman said. "This is a major step forward."

While Republicans and some Democrats were pleased with the Energy Policy Act of 2005, other Democrats and environmentalists were less pleased.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert, an Illinois Republican said the bill, "addresses the burden that higher gasoline prices place on American consumers by eventually reducing our dependence on foreign oil and encouraging diversification of our energy supply. It also encourages domestic production of oil; establishes a Renewable Fuel Standard that will double the use of clean-burning and renewable ethanol; provides incentives for developing clean energy technologies; and enhances our electricity transmission infrastructure. It also contains several important provisions which will help with energy conservation."

Congresswoman Pelosi said, "This energy policy is yet another example of Republicans catering to corporate special interests at the expense of the public interest. Billions of dollars are going to the oil, gas, and nuclear industries and nothing is going to consumers paying more at the pump.

"Democrats are fighting for an energy policy for the future that will reduce gas prices, reduce our dependence on foreign oil, and reduce pollution," she said.

Jeff Rickert, executive director of the Apollo Alliance, a new coalition of foundations, business, labor, environmental, social justice and faith-based organizations, said the legislation, "hands over billions in subsidies to oil companies but does nothing to reduce our dependence on foreign oil."

"The Energy Bill represents a failure of leadership by the administration and leadership in Congress," said Rickert. "We urgently need a crash program to move America toward energy independence, while capturing the green markets of the future. In the absence of federal leadership, states and cities are taking on this issue, and for now our hopes for progress will rest there."

New Mexico Congressman Tom Udall, a Democrat, said the bill is not flawless, but it is an improvement over the status quo. "I am pleased that the bill does include renewable energy and energy efficiency incentives. However, I would have written a more ambitious bill that would have more aggressively reduced our reliance on foreign oil, addressed global warming, added tough automobile fuel efficiency standards, and revitalized the nation's railroads."

International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers International President Edwin Hill said the legislation "represents a crucial first step in unifying the nation's haphazard energy policy, and presents real opportunities for broad cooperation on the road to common-sense energy reform."

The bill will expand the use of nuclear, wind, solar and clean coal energy, and further solidify the union's wide reach in traditional and renewable technologies, Hill said. The IBEW will also gain from mandatory electricity reliability standards and initiatives to study the utility worker shortage and expand the electricity transmission infrastructure.

"After several years of squandered opportunities, the United States finally has set a clear path to address the nation's inadequate energy infrastructure," Hill said.

The IBEW is pleased with language in the bill that calls for raising the penalty for manipulating the electricity market, as Enron traders did during the California deregulation crisis from $5,000 to $1 million per violation.

The grassroots group Republicans for Environmental Protection wanted an energy bill that would "Raise fuel economy standards for cars and SUV's to 40 miles per gallon over the next decade -- thereby saving more than 15 times the estimated yield of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, saving fuel America must now import and saving drivers billions of dollars at the pump."

REP America also wants the Bush administration to "Take global climate change seriously by capping carbon dioxide emissions (as pledged in the presidential campaign) and increase the use of natural gas as the "bridge" to a clean energy future."

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) says that while the legislation was five years in the making, it still fails to address America's most pressing energy needs.

"Growing oil dependence. Soaring gas prices. Destructive energy development. Huge subsidies for polluters. Global warming. Not one of these problems is seriously addressed in the energy bill," said NRDC Legislative Director Karen Wayland.

"Because Congress blew it, we'll remain dependent on oil and we'll keep paying high prices at the pump," she said. "Even though 'comprehensive' energy legislation only happens every ten years or so, our nation can't wait another decade before Congress decides to get serious about addressing the issues sidestepped by this industry boondoggle of a bill."