The House-Senate conference committee today approved the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (H.R. 6). The action clears the way for final passage this week and will satisfy President Bush’s ambitious goal of completing a comprehensive energy bill this month.
H.R. 6 is expected to easily win a bipartisan majority in the House and the Senate, sending the bill to the White House. The conference committee met five times in sessions open to the media and the general public. In addition, the main four conferees, Barton, U.S. Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., and U.S. Sens. Domenici and Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., met 11 times altogether.
The renewable energy portfolio standards and measures to increase vehicle petroleum efficiency did not make it into the bill. Drilling in the Arctic National Refuge was also dropped by the conference committee!!
Specifically the bill:
* Encourages more domestic production of oil with incentives such as a streamlined permit process; promote greater refining capacity to bring more oil to market; and includes measures to stop the proliferation of regional boutique fuels. To scale back demand for oil, the proposal encourages vehicles powered by hydrogen fuel cells and increases funding for Department of Transportation work to improve fuel-efficiency standards.
* Improves our nation’s electricity transmission capacity and reliability to stop future blackouts through the adoption of reliability standards, incentives for transmission grid improvements and reform of transmission authorization rules.
* Provides incentives for clean coal technology and renewable energies such as biomass, wind, solar and hydroelectricity.
* Requires greater energy conservation by establishing new mandatory efficiency requirements for federal buildings, and efficiency standards and product labeling for battery chargers, commercial refrigerators, freezers, unit heaters and other household products.
* Extends Daylight Saving Time by four weeks to reduce energy consumption by the equivalent of 100,000 barrels of oil for each day of the extension.
* delays the government’s Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States (CFIUS) from reviewing sensitive international energy mergers, such as the active bid for Unocal by the Chinese National Overseas Oil Company – an entity 70 percent owned by the communist Chinese government – for 120 days to allow for a review by the Departments of Defense, Energy and Homeland Security.
The assessment would examine the proposed deal’s impact on U.S. energy security and whether or not an American company would be allowed to make such an acquisition in the foreign company’s host country. CFIUS would also be required to wait three weeks after completion of the study before it can make recommendations to the president the international merger at issue.
* Boosts production of natural gas by clearing the way on 40 liquefied natural gas facilities nationwide.
* Encourages more nuclear and hydropower production by authorizing the Department of Energy to develop accelerated programs for the production and supply of electricity; setting the stage for the lengthy process of building new nuclear reactors by offering risk insurance incentives and extending Price-Anderson indemnification; and improving current procedures for hydroelectric project licensing.
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