Senate Committee Approves Energy Package
June 26th, 2009
On June 17, 2009, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee voted 15-8 to approve comprehensive energy legislation. The bill will include a national renewable electricity standard, establish a new federal electricity-transmission siting power, and open large new tracts of land in the Gulf of Mexico to oil and gas drilling.
The legislation, which was approved with some bipartisan support and now moves to the Senate floor, was put together after months of work and careful compromise. Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) gained the support of Republicans by compromising on language to expand offshore drilling and relaxing an originally stronger renewable energy mandate on utilities.
The bill’s key provision requires that 15 percent of power provided by utility companies come from renewable sources by 2021. However, the plan allows for one fourth of the requirement to be met with improved efficiency measures. The Senate bill’s renewable energy standard is more modest than President Obama’s proposed mandate of 25 percent by 2025 or the standard included in House approved American Clean Energy and Security Act (H.R. 2454) which calls for 20 percent by 2020.
The compromises in the bill, such as the expansion of offshore drilling on the eastern Gulf, may revive old disagreements. Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) has promised to fight against this provision which could bring oil and gas rigs closer to the Florida Gulf Coast, arguing it violates a 2006 drilling bill (PL 109-432) that provided a 100- to 235-mile no-drill buffer zone through 2022. Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) has backed Nelson’s opposition to the provision.
Another contentious provision in the proposed bill would allow the federal government to overrule state objections to siting transmission lines that would be responsible for transporting electricity produced by renewable energy sources. The plan would replace the current “patchwork” of transmission policies at the state level with a set of common, minimum standards set forth by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to be applied nationwide.
As the Senate Energy and Natural Resource’s Committee finished its markup of the proposed package, the panel rejected an amendment put forth by Senator Stabenow (D-MI) which would have eliminated a provision in current law limiting federal investment on grants for research and development of vehicle technology to 30 percent. The panel rejected the amendment 11-12.