The House spent two days debating its version of the energy bill (H.R. 6) before passing it on 4/21 by a vote of 249-183. The bill is largely identical to energy bills that the House has passed in two previous Congresses. The bill would continue to promote polluting energy industries through tax breaks and subsidies at the expense of investments in clean, renewable fuels.
Approximately 95 percent of the $8 billion in tax breaks would go to the oil, gas, coal and nuclear industries, while just slightly over five percent would go to renewable sources of energy and energy efficiency. In total, the bill would provide more than $22 billion to polluting energy interests. By a vote of 200-231, the House rejected an amendment offered by Rep. Markey (D-MA) to strike language authorizing drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
The House also defeated an attempt by Rep. Solis (D-CA) to strike language that would allow expedited construction of oil refineries in low-income neighborhoods, as well as an amendment offered by Rep. Boehlert (R-NY) that would have increased vehicle fuel efficiency. Congress has not raised the fuel efficiency standard for cars and trucks in at least 15 years, even though doing so would save billions of barrels of oil a year. A loophole in the bill would allow manufacturers of cars that can use both gasoline and ethanol to receive phony fuel economy credits for these vehicles.
Nearly all dual-fuel vehicles run on gasoline 99 percent of the time, so the dual-fuel credit would actually increase U.S. oil consumption by 15 billion gallons over the next 10 years. Rep. Capps’ (D-CA) attempt to strip the MTBE liability waiver provision in the bill failed by a vote of 213-219. MTBE is a toxic gasoline additive that has polluted drinking water in at least 29 states. The bill’s liability waiver would prevent states and local governments from suing MTBE producers to recover the costs of cleanup, estimated to be more than $29 billion.
The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee is expected to vote on parts of the Senate version of an energy bill as early as May 16.
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House Appropriations Committee Slices EPA Budget by $320 Million:
The U.S. EPA would see its funding for fiscal year 2006 cut by about $320 million under a House bill approved by voice vote yesterday in the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee.
EPA for the coming budget year would receive $7.71 billion, down from $8.02 billion in FY ’05 but $187 million above President Bush’s proposal of $7.52 billion. Overall, the subcommittee’s Interior, Environment and Related Agencies bill includes $26.2 billion, with some $18 billion for environment-related functions in the Interior Department and U.S. Forest Service.
“This is a fair and balanced bill,” said Rep. Charles Taylor (R-N.C.), chairman of the newly organized Interior panel that now has oversight of EPA as well as Interior Department and Forest Service programs. Taylor noted that the overall bill is a work in progress that still needs to pass the full House and conference negotiations with the Senate.
The sharpest cut in the EPA budget under the House plan falls on the Clean Water State Revolving Loan Fund, a popular program that provides funding for the improvement of wastewater plants across the country. Under the House bill, the wastewater program would receive a $240 million cut from last year, from just over $1 billion down to $850 million.
Democrats complained at yesterday’s markup that the overall House GOP budget is the cause for the wastewater shortfall. The wastewater loan fund, they noted, has been reduced almost $500 million over the last two fiscal years by tightfisted Republican budget writers.
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