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15/11/2007 | Where’s That Energy Bill?

NY Times Editorial

Two months ago, Washington was filled with hope that Congress would produce an energy bill that would begin to address the two great challenges of oil dependency and climate change.

 

Each chamber had approved respectable if incomplete measures that could be combined in one outstanding bill. Then the bills disappeared into the back rooms as Democratic leaders tried to negotiate a final product.

These talks have now reached a dangerous point. With both houses feeling pressure to do something — anything — to deal with high oil prices, there’s a real danger that one or more essential provisions could be dropped just for the sake of producing a bill.

That’s not what the country needs. And it doesn’t have to happen if the leadership, Nancy Pelosi in the House and Harry Reid in the Senate, hold the line and insist on legislation equal to the country’s profound energy problems. Here are the main points of contention:

FUEL EFFICIENCY The single most effective way to address the problem of oil imports and consumption is to improve the efficiency of cars and light trucks, which use more than two-thirds of all the oil burned in the United States. Efficiency standards have changed little in 30 years. The Senate bill mandates an ambitious 40 percent improvement by 2020. The House ducked the issue — but Ms. Pelosi promised to fight for stronger standards in later negotiations. She must now honor that pledge.

RENEWABLE ELECTRICITY The House bill requires utilities to generate 15 percent of their power from renewable sources like wind by 2020. Republicans, pressured by a few big utilities like the Southern Company, blocked a similar provision in the Senate. Almost two dozen states have already figured out that this is both good for the environment and good for the economy and have enacted renewable energy standards, which will create jobs, stabilize natural gas prices and reduce global warming emissions.

Yet this provision is in greater danger than any other of getting tossed overboard. Ms. Pelosi should insist that it remain in the bill and Mr. Reid should enlist the support of governors from those nearly two dozen states to change Republican thinking in the Senate.

TAXING BIG OIL The House rolled back some of the far too generous tax breaks granted to the oil industry in the 2005 energy bill. The proceeds would be used to fund renewable energy intitiatives. The House bill also contains some modest but overdue environmental protections for sensitive Western lands threatened by oil and gas drilling. Industry has been going berserk over both provisions. The House should stand its ground.

Even if the leadership gets all this right, it still won’t be a substitute for comprehensive climate change legislation. It would, however, represent an important down payment on that larger obligation. With so much more to be done, Ms. Pelosi and Mr. Reid simply have to deliver a good energy bill.

NY Times (Estados Unidos)

 


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