A bipartisan group of Senators, calling themselves the "Gang of 10" has unveiled a bill that compromises on the major issues holding up new energy legislation.
The bill would extend the production tax credit (PTC) for renewable energy investments through 2012, and it would reduce tax breaks for oil companies–two measures Democrats have been pushing for. In return, the bill would open up areas of the continental shelf to oil and gas exploration–something Republicans insist will help lower gasoline prices at the pump.
The $84 million dollar bill is being called the New Energy Reform Act of 2008, or the "New Era" for short.
The bill also provides funding to make 85% of new vehicles in the U.S. alternative-fuel capable within 20 years. Consumer tax credits of up to $7,500 per vehicle would be available for alternative fuel vehicles, as well as $2,500 to retrofit existing vehicles to alternative fuel engines–such as electric or ethanol.
Other measures of the bill support carbon mitigation, carbon capture and sequestration, and energy conservation and efficiency.
But on the down side, the bill provides grants and loan guarantees for coal-to-liquid fuel plants, which use massive amounts of water and energy to convert coal to a cleaner-burning form. The bill also calls for increasing staff at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and other measures to support increased use of nuclear power in the U.S.
The areas that would be opened to offshore drilling lie of Florida’s Gulf coast and off the coasts of Virginia, the Carolinas and Georgia. The areas would be beyond a 50 mile buffer zone and all oil and gas production from these areas would have to be used domestically.
Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama supported the proposal, which he called "a good faith effort at a new bipartisan beginning."
Obama’s Republican rival John McCain said he would be willing to come of the campaign trail, if Congress reconvened from summer recess to deal with the nation’s energy crisis.
The ten senators who proposed the bill are Republicans John Thune (S.D.), Lindsey Graham (S.C.), Bob Corker (TN), Johnny Isakson (GA) and Saxby Chambliss (GA); and Democrats Blanche Lincoln (AK), Mary Landrieu (LA), Mark Pryor (AK), Ben Nelson (NE) and Kent Conrad (N.D.)
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