Energy Bill: Can it Pass?

The most comprehensive, progressive Energy & Climate Bills we’ve ever seen in this country have begun the process of winding through the House and Senate. This could be the most difficult part of Obama’s plan to gain passage and will need strong advocacy from the green business community.

In the House, the Energy and Commerce Committee released a discussion draft of "The American Clean Energy and Security Act." Committee Chair Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Edward Markey (D-Mass.), who chairs the Energy and Environment Subcommittee, are co-sponsors. Waxman says he hopes to pass the measure out of committee by Memorial Day.

In the Senate, the Energy & Natural Resources Committee has held 13 hearings and 30 staff briefings on provisions that would be contained in a bill. They hope to complete a bill by the end of April.

House Legislation

The House legislation has four components: clean energy, including renewable energy and carbon capture and sequestration; energy efficiency; climate change cap-and-trade program; and provisions to protect citizens from price spikes while promoting green jobs.

The bill’s highlights are:

– Reduce GHG emissions 20% from 2005 levels by 2020. This is the first bill to embrace science-based GHG emissions reduction targets set by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). To limit warming to 2 degrees, developed nations must cut emissions 25-40% below 1990 levels by 2020 and 80-95% by 2050.

– Creates a cap and trade system, but doesn’t detail whether carbon emissions would be auctioned off or given away or how revenue from the system would be spent.

– Creates a national Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS): 25% of electricity to be generated from clean sources by 2025.

– Energy Efficiency Standard: reduce electricity use 15% by 2020 and natural gas use by 10%.

• Retrofit for Energy and Environmental Performance (REEP) program: promotes comprehensive efficiency retrofits for homes and commercial buildings, reducing energy consumption by about 20%.
• New efficiency standards: portable lighting fixtures (floor and table lamps); outdoor lighting fixtures for streets and parking lots; commercial furnaces; drinking water dispensers; hot tubs; and hot food holding cabinets (used to keep food warm before it is served).
• Reforms the federal appliance standards program, clarifying ambiguous language and strengthening the the Secretary of Energy’s authority to set standards that are "technically feasible" and "economically justified."
• Building codes: new buildings would use 30% less energy starting in 2010 and 50% starting in 2016.
• Building labeling program: owners and prospective buyers/ tenants would be able to compare the energy use of a particular home or building to similar buildings in the local area.
• States would establish goals to reduce GHG from transportation; municipalities would submit plans to achieve the goals through zoning and land use, non-auto modes, and pricing strategies.
• EPA would be required to develop GHG standards for heavy trucks, marine vessels, locomotives, and aircraft.
• The role of EPA’s SmartWay Transport Program would be expanded to maximize the efficiency of the nation’s goods movement system.

– Caps emissions of F-gases, an important step to phasing out powerful pollutants that have hundreds to thousands of times greater global warming effects than CO2.

– Robust funding to stop international deforestation, which is responsible for 20% of global carbon emissions.

Potential Downsides:

– 2 billion tons of pollution offsets – if all offsets were used, the bill’s emissions reductions could be met without actually reducing fossil fuel emissions for 20 years.

– Billions of dollars for the coal industry to develop carbon capture and sequestration, a false promise.

Senate Bill

– Energy Innovation and Workforce Development: extends and expands Department of Energy (DOE) research, demonstration and green job training programs.

• Doubles R&D funding for DOE over the next four years, returning the Federal government’s energy investments to 1978 peak levels by fiscal year 2013.
• "Grand Challenges Research Initiative": integrates DOE’s basic and applied energy research programs to help industry receive the maximum benefits of cutting-edge research.
• Domestic Vehicle Manufacturing Program: fosters a domestic battery manufacturing industry for electric vehicles
• Training programs for a clean energy jobs: especially for skilled technician and trade workers needed to build and maintain energy infrastructure, and for experts in geosciences (i.e., geothermal energy, geological storage of CO2, water development). Would coordinate energy-related training programs across the Federal government.

– Manufacturing Leadership through Energy Efficiency: strengthens American manufacturing by increasing industrial energy efficiency, reducing use of carbon-based fuels and associated emissions, making businesses more productive and able to retain green jobs.

• Financing mechanisms to help small and large manufacturers adopt advanced energy efficient production technologies and processes.
• Stimulates development and widespread deployment of innovative energy efficient technologies and processes for manufacturing and industry through public-private R&D partnerships, innovation grants.
• Supports development of a U.S. high-tech advanced energy manufacturing industry, where technologies are invented here and produced here.

– Energy-Water Integration: Increase understanding of the energy and water connection and begin integrating decision-making related to both resources.

• National Academy of Sciences Energy-Water Study would assess water use associated with developing transportation fuels and with various kinds of electricity generation.
• Energy Information Administration would report annually on the energy consumed in water treatment and delivery activities.
• DOE would identify best available technologies and other strategies to optimize water and energy efficiency in producing electricity.
• The Secretary of Energy would develop an Energy-Water Research and Development Roadmap to address water-related challenges to sustainable energy generation and production.
• The Bureau of Reclamation would evaluate energy use in storing and delivering water, and identify ways to reduce consumption through conservation, improved operations, and renewable energy integration.

– Improved Energy Efficiency in Appliances and Equipment: the most cost-effective way to reduce costs, environmental impacts, energy security and foster economic development.

• Strengthens the DOE appliance standards program and the DOE/EPA Energy Star program, which have reduced national electrical demand 10% below what it would otherwise be, while saving citizens an estimated $400 billion.
• Establishes standards for portable light fixtures (table and floor lamps) based on California standards, saving the amount of electricity for 350,000 homes by 2020.
• Promote better decision-making in the DOE standards program by allowing stakeholder petitions to revise standards and test procedures, and requiring DOE to give timely responses.

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