At Power Shift this past weekend, we heard that the Congressional Energy Bill was a critical down payment on a clean and prosperous energy future, and Nancy Pelosi and Ed Markey promised to deliver it this fall. They called for our help pushing it through, and now it appears it’s time to follow through. It’s time to step up the power shift!
As Democrat and Republican leaders maneuver, negotiate, and deal on the Congressional Energy Bill this week, there appears to be some nefarious shenanigans underfoot and a possible cave-in by Democratic leaders in process. Now might be time to call your Senators and Representatives…
Energy Bill Shenanigans
First, Senator Pete Domenici (R-NM) is working to strip the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) title out of the Senate Energy Bill and attach it wholesale to the Ag Bill currently under debate in the Senate. Domenici claims he’s just trying to save the RFS from the potentially floundering Energy Bill, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) says he’s got more sinister motives.
According to lots of folks, including Reid, Domenici is really trying to kill the Energy Bill with this move.
Remember that Domenici was the man who led the filibuster in the Senate that blocked both the Renewable Electricity Standard and the tax package that would have shifted billions in unnecessary royalties and closed loopholes to provide $32 billion in tax incentives from the oil and gas industries to fund clean, renewable energy.
As David Roberts at GristMill writes,
“The RFS is one of the key planks holding support for the energy bill together, bringing in some midwestern Republicans to compensate for the auto and oil Dems that have bailed [due to fuel economy standrd increases and the shift in subsidies from oil to renewables]. If the RFS falls out of the energy bill, the coalition falls apart.”
So by pulling out the Renewable Fuels Standard, Domenici seems to be trying to pull the plug on the embattled Energy Bill. Without the RFS, and the farm-state Rs it brings along, the Energy Bill is unlikely to get the 60 votes necessary to pass filibuster in the Senate (likely led – again! – by Senator Domenici).
And as if that’s not bad enough, Mr. D. is also trying to tack on his beloved massive loan guarantee for new nuclear power plants to the Ag Bill.
Yeah, “what do nukes have to do with agriculture?” Well, not much, but Domenici plans to try to make it germane by calling the federal loan guarantees “loan guarantees for renewable fuel facilities.” Then in a bit of wonderful D.C. trickery, the amendment lumps nuclear power plants within the list of eligible “renewable fuel facilities.” Nice one Pete.
The loan guarantees, which total $50 billion in the Senate version of the Energy Bill, would essentially put John and Jane Q. Taxpayer on the hook for any loan defaults by new nuclear power plant developers. The guarantees are necessary because no sane investment bank would finance a new nuclear power plant given the risk and uncertainty in permitting a new nuke.
So when Wall Street won’t foot the bill for new nukes, let’s put our taxpayers on the hook, or at least that’s Senator Domenici’s philosophy here. Good thing nuke developers have never defaulted on loans before … oh wait!
All part of retiring Senator Domenici’s legacy of fighting renewable energy. He can’t retire soon enough, if you ask me.
Possible Cave-in on Renewable Energy Brewing
So, with influential Republicans working to kill the fragile coalition supporting the Energy Bill, embattled Democratic leaders are considering jettisoning the support for renewable energy in the House version of the Energy Bill.
According to rumors flying around D.C. and across the blogosphere, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Reid are considering stripping the 15% by 2020 Renewable Electricity Standard (or Renewable Portfolio Standard) and the $32 billion tax package for renewable energy from the Energy Bill in order to try to keep increased fuel economy standards in the bill.
Stripping the RES and the tax title would mean Dems had been forced to cave on just about everything that President Bush has complained about and Senator Rs had fought against.
The 35 mpg by 2020 increase in CAFE standards is critical, especially at a time when oil is trading at nearly $100 per barrel. However, the support for clean, homegrown renewable energy in the Energy Bill is equally critical and the Democratic Leadership needs to be clear that the RES and tax title are not ballast to be thrown overboard in stormy waters.
It’s time to send Pelosi, Reid and your own reps and senators a clear message that the Energy Bill must include all three provisions: increased fuel economy standards, a renewable electricity standard, AND a tax package for clean, renewable energy.
Let President Bush veto a critical energy bill at a time of record high energy prices and explain that to the American people. Let House and Senate Rs explain why they blocked efforts to save Americans energy and money, help kick our oil addiction, invest in clean, homegrown, renewable energy sources and put America on a path to a sustainable and prosperous energy future.
But DO NOT cave in.
This isn’t the “change” we voted for in November 2006, and we’ll be voting for new leaders in 2008 if our current set can’t get the job done. We’re behind you Pelosi, but not if you cave. We want a Power Shift, and we’ll get it!
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Maybe I am just too old and too practical, but why not have loan guarantees for both renewables and nuclear as a way to get the renewables supported. Maybe even link it to something like a permanent or longer tax credit for renewables (i.e., the 1.8 cents per kwh currently in place for wind). Yes it means there may be a few more nuclear plants, but such a deal might break an impasse and allow a larger and faster expansion of low carbon technologies instead of years of political fighting.
While that may be acceptable for some compromise-minded folks R. Margolis, that’s not what Domenici is up to. He wants to strip his favorite provisions out of the Energy Bill and attach them to the Ag Bill instead so that he can scuttle the Energy Bill completely. The current Energy Bill does have both loan guarantees for nukes and tax incentives for renewables. I’d love to see the nuke provision stripped out (let the private sector finance nukes if they’re so great) but if it has to stay in to get the rest passed, that’s one thing. Stripping it out and attaching nuclear subsidies to an agriculture bill is just plain bullsh!t Washington D.C. politics. What do nukes have to do with agriculture?!
I was talking about recovery plan. It seems like all sides keep saying the world is going to end if we don’t go solar, or don’t go nuclear, or don’t sequester carbon, etc. IPCC said that we will need a wide spectrum of technologies to solve this and it would be easier to build a coalition if the spectrum was embraced instead of everyone (whether they are Senator Domenici or Congressman Markey) trying to solve the problem with too tight of an agenda.
As for a rider on the Ag bill, riders are a classic technique in Congress. If a “clean” bill is desired, a wide coalition will be required to advocate it.
Please do NOT support the energy bill if it includes any of the following…
* the $50 billion in nuclear power loan guarantees
* the Renewable Fuels Standard. This is NOT clean energy. It would extend the ethanol mandate from 7.5 billion gallons by 2012 (which already already meeting 4 years ahead of schedule) up to 36 billion gallons/year by 2022. Many of these ethanol plants would be coal-fired and even if not, they’re driving up corn costs and causing all sorts of other damage. See http://www.energyjustice.net/ethanol/factsheet.pdf for more info.
* trash incinerators being defined as renewable in the renewable electricity standard that people are trying to get back into the bill… thankfully, this was not in the version that passed so far, but Congressmen Platts (R-PA), Pascrell (D-NJ), Rothman (D-NJ) and Sires (D-NJ) are trying to get it included. It’s bad enough that landfills and other “biomass” incineration technologies will be included… let’s not allow trash incinerators in there… they’re more polluting and worse for global climate change than coal power plants!
I have to add my 2 cents here. For anyone to assume the rest of the world is right about nuclear being our only chance of turning the tide, needs to go back to science 101. The powers that be have collectivly gone on a campaign to propagandize who ever they can. I hope they don’t get away with it, if one hears it’s supported by enviornmentalist they need to check thoses sources and thier affilliations to the industry or motive. We don’t have a place to store the waste that we already have , other countries ship thier spent fuels to us to hold onto, and other countries do what they will to thier own enviornments and cover ups, ect. When Chernobal happened our government quickly came out with a statement that we didn’t have any such plants like that in the U.S. We certainly did , Hanford was soon closed down and now has toxic waste in the gound water! I know folks would like to think our government has more integrity then playing games with peoples minds. They have figured us out for the most part and feel confident that they can do what they want in the end, just lie and when the lie is revealed the harm is already done.Get educated on the subject before you declare that we need to include nuclear, you will be outraged by what you discover! Go To NukeFee.org, is a good place to start. Peace