US House to tackle energy bill, oil subsidy repeal
02 Aug 2007 21:47:59 GMT Source: Reuters
By Chris Baltimore WASHINGTON, Aug 2 (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives on Friday will debate a massive energy bill that sets aside about $16 billion in clean energy incentives, mostly by repealing tax credits extended to oil companies. Earlier this week, Democratic leaders decided to drop consideration of amendments to boost U.S. automobile fuel efficiency standards for the first time in nearly 30 years, due to deep party divisions over the fine print. House Republicans call it a "no-energy" bill because it lacks measures to boost oil and natural gas production in new U.S. basins. They formally asked the White House to veto it. The bill -- a top priority for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi -- is a collection of legislation assembled by about a dozen chamber committees over the last few months. Its 786 pages run from appliance efficiency standards to green building codes to requiring installation of new pumps that can handle ethanol fuel. The bill, however, is notable for what it omits - vehicle fuel-efficiency rules and a mandated boost in ethanol fuel use - provisions that the Senate included in its energy legislation passed in June. Pelosi has said she wants the House to pass the bill before it departs for its month-long summer recess slated to begin at the end of Friday's session. U.S. Energy Secretary Sam Bodman on Thursday criticized the bill but stopped short of a veto threat. "That bill in my judgment doesn't really deal with energy," Bodman told reporters. "It doesn't really deal with the issues that could have a major impact on energy usage." The House is likely to debate a controversial amendment to the bill that would require U.S. utilities to generate 15 percent of their electricity from renewable sources like wind and solar by 2020. Environmentalists, officials from the wind and solar industries, and lawmakers from windy states in the Great Plains say the bill will spur cleaner power supplies and reduce greenhouse gases attributed to global warming. Lawmakers from states with low wind energy potential - notably the Southeast and Midwest - are up in arms, and say the "renewable portfolio standard" could cost their residents billions of dollars in higher electricity prices. "We strongly believe that this would be a major tax on electricity consumers," said Tom Kuhn, president of the Edison Electric Institute, which lobbies for big investor-owned utilities like Atlanta-based Southern Co. <SO.N> and Ohio-based American Electric Power <AEP.N>. The bill's tax portion would impose about $16 billion in new taxes on big oil companies like ExxonMobil Corp.<XOM.N> and uses the money raised to extend existing tax credits for renewable energy sources like wind, solar, and biodiesel. The tax package will be weighed separately from the Democrats' main energy package. A $32 billion tax package failed to pass the Senate in June after Republicans objected to anti-industry provisions.
