Update on the US Senate Energy Bill, Part 2
15 June 2007
Some 100 amendments to the energy bill under deliberation in the Senate emerged in the first three days of debate, among them being a proposal for a National Low-Carbon Fuel Standard (Obama, SA 1579) and another being a proposal to promote the development of plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles, and deploying near-term programs to electrify the transportation sector (Salazar, SA 1572).
The Levin/Stabenow more lenient proposal on CAFE is coming to the floor today, although the two senators and other co-sponsors held a press conference on Thursday to describe the basics: 36 mpg for cars by 2022; 30 mpg for light trucks by 2025; 50% flex-fuel production mandated by 2015. (Earlier post.)
A number of new amendments proposed major initiatives. SA 1539 (Akaka) establishes a marine and hydrokinetic energy program (wave, tide and current energy). SA 1547 (Tester) establishes a national goal of 15% geothermal energy by 2030 (National Geothermal Initiative Act), and puts more than half a billion dollars to it through 2012. SA 1558 (Obama) establishes a program in which the Federal government will reimburse automakers for a portion of their healthcare costs for retirees, if the automakers then put at least 50% of that money back into advanced, fuel-efficient vehicles.
There is a continuing push on the part of some senators to include coal-to-liquids and gas-to-liquids as clean and alternative options; there is a corresponding pushback by senators who want to keep the coal option off the fuel table.
The Senate voted down the Inhofe amendment (SA 1505) proposing support for refineries, an evaluation program for Fischer-Tropsch transportation fuels, and support for Coal-to-Liquids projects. Senator Inhofe subsequently resubmitted some of the amendment’s proposals as newer amendments.
The Senate also tabled an amendment (SA 1538) that would have established a clean energy portfolio standard (rather than a renewable portfolio standard)—clean energy being defined as including nuclear, carbon capture and sequestration, efficient, and efficiency and demand programs.
A table of the current status of amendments follows. Amendments with numbers in bold have been accepted; amendments with number stricken through have been rejected, tabled or withdrawn.
Proposed Amendments to Senate Energy Bill (amended H.R.6) 12 June 07 | |||
---|---|---|---|
Amendment | Sponsor(s) | Title and/or notes | |
Inhofe and Thune | “Gas Price Act” Defeated 13 June by Yea-Nay vote of 52 to 43. Record Vote Number: 210 | ||
SA 1506 | Stevens and Landrieu | Energy Efficient Lightbulbs
| |
SA 1508 | Bayh, Brownback, Lieberman, Coleman, Salazar, Lincoln, Cantwell, Kerry, Dodd, Kohl, Reed, Collins, Nelson | Oil Savings Plan and Requirements. Directs the appropriate agencies of the Federal government to develop a plan to reduce oil consumption by:
SA 1508 agreed to in Senate by Yea-Nay Vote. 63 - 30. Record Vote Number: 209. | |
SA 1509 SA 1552 |
Craig | Geologic Mapping Reauthorization. Provides $640 million over 10 years (fiscal years 2007 through 2016) for updating and expanding geologic mapping of the US. | |
SA 1510 | Cochran | Increased Capacity of Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Raises the SPR to 1.5 billion barrels from current 1.0 billion barrels. | |
SA 1511 | Murkowski | Study of CAFE Standards for Commercial Trucks. NHTSA to conduct study of the anticipated economic impacts and fuel saving benefits that would result from vehicle fuel economy standards for medium- and heavy duty vehicles, as specified in the main body of the bill. | |
SA 1512 | Murkowski | Broadens the potential uses of funding proposed to support renewable energy projects in Section 215 of the bill. | |
SA 1513 | Murkowski and Stevens | Adds personnel hiring language to the Alaska Natural Gas Pipeline Act. | |
SA 1514 | Kerry and Sanders | Renewable Portfolio Standard.
| |
SA 1515 | Sanders, Clinton, Kerry, Biden, Salazar | Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Worker Training. Establishes a public program and funds other initiatives that provide training for jobs that are created through renewable energy and energy efficiency initiatives with authorized funding of $100 million per fiscal year. SA 1515 agreed to in Senate by unanimous consent. | |
SA 1516 SA 1533 |
Menendez | Evaluate the effect the laws (including regulations) limiting the siting of privately owned electric distribution wires on and across public rights-of-way might have on the development of combined heat and power facilities. | |
SA 1517 | Menendez | Expands the definition of “State”in the Energy Conservation and Production Act (42 U.S.C. 6862) to include the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. | |
SA 1518 | Menendez | Prohibits oil and gas leasing in the Mid-Atlantic and North Atlantic planning area of the Outer COntinental Shelf. | |
SA 1519 | Kohl, Specter, Leahy, Grassley, Biden, Snowe, Feingold, Schumer, Coburn, Durbin, Lieberman, Boxer, Sanders | NOPEC—“No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels Act of 2007”. Makes it illegal under the Sherman Act for foreign cartels to limit production of oil, natural gas or petroleum products, or to set or maintain prices. The Attorney General can sue. | |
SA 1520 | Cardin | Establishes a “National Commission on Energy Independence” for the US. | |
SA 1521 | Biden | Compact Fluorescent Lighting Grant Program. Establishes a program for grants to States for the distribution of medium base compact fluorescent lamps to households in the State. | |
SA 1524 | Salazar, Grassley, Obama, Harkin, Hagel, Lugar, Feingold, Clinton, Casey, Nelson (Nebraska), Brownback, Kohl, Kerry, Johnson, Tester, Cantwell, Thune, and Cochran | Sense of Congress. By 2025, a US goal of 25% of total energy consumed should be from renewable resources, while the US continues to produce safe, abundant, and affordable food, feed, and fiber. | |
SA 1525 | Sanders | Standards for solar hot water heaters. | |
SA 1526 | Thune | Extension and modification of renewable electricity production credit. | |
SA 1527 | Thune | Extension of the ethanol tariff. Extends the tariff on imported ethanol through 2010. |
Proposed Amendments to Senate Energy Bill (amended H.R.6) 13 June 07 | |||
---|---|---|---|
Amendment | Sponsor(s) | Title and/or notes | |
SA 1528 | Bingaman, Domenici | ||
SA 1529 | Bingaman and Domenici | Annual reports on the quantity, type, and cost of each lighting product purchased by the Federal Government. | |
SA 1530 | Pryor | Promotion of energy-saving performance contracts. | |
SA 1531 | Pryor | Energy and water evaluations and efficiency measures for the Federal government. | |
SA 1532 | Thune | Fast-track (180-day) approval of higher blends of ethanol for use in non-flex fuel vehicles for vehicles that receive a satisfactory review based on a study (also in the bill). | |
SA 1534 SA 1565 |
Nelson | Biofuels Investment Trust Fund. | |
SA 1535 | Cardin, Mikulski, Doss, Kerry, Reed, Kennedy, Whitehouse | Siting, construction, expansion and operation of LNG terminals. Federal government cannot approve or disapprove an application for an LNG terminal without the express concurrence of each State affected by the application. | |
SA 1537 | Bingaman, Cardin, Reid, Salazar, Snowe, Durbin | Renewable Portfolio Standard. A different timeline table and different end percentage:
| |
Domenici, McConnell, Craig, Bennett, Crapo, Graham, Murkowski | “Clean” Portfolio Standard. Amendment to SA 1537. More aggressive percentage.
Defines clean energy to include nuclear generation, carbon capture and sequestration, energy efficiency or demand response programs. Tabled by a vote of 56-39, 14 June. | ||
SA 1539 | Akaka, Murkowski, Snowe | Marine and Hydrokinetic Renewable Energy Promotion. development of power generation from waves, tides and currents. | |
SA 1540 | Carper, Biden | Study of Offshore Wind Resources. | |
SA 1541 | Smith, Cantwell, Murkowski, Wyden | National Ocean Energy Research Centers. | |
SA 1542 | Brownback | Agricultural Byproduct Use Exposition. A trade-show for new products, such as plastics, carpets, disposable dishes, and cosmetics, produced by the entities from agricultural byproducts. | |
SA 1543 | Bayh, Brownback, Lieberman, Coleman, Salazar | GEM Flex-Fuel Vehicle. Expands definition of flex-fuel vehicle to include M85 (85% methanol, 15% gasoline). Gasoline-E85-M85 = GEM. | |
SA 1544 | Casey | Energy Security and Corporate Accountability Act of 2007. Targeted at oil companies. | |
SA 1545 | Enzi | Some escape clauses for the Renewable Fuels Standard. (Drives price of food up, impacts deliverability of goods, etc.) | |
SA 1546 | DeMint | Limitations on legislation that would drive up average fuel price for autos. | |
SA 1547 SA 1586 |
Tester, Bingaman, Reid, Murkowski, Stevens, Salazar, Akaka, Sanders, Snowe | National Geothermal Initiative Act of 2007. Declares a national goal to achieve at least 15% of total electrical energy production in the United States from geothermal resources by not later than 2030. Establishes an initiative to achieve that goal. $515 million from 2008 through 2012; sums as necessary 2013 through 2030. | |
SA 1548 | Durbin | Legislative branch fleet compliance with the efficiency sections of the bill. | |
SA 1549 | Kohl, Feingold, Burr | Use of highly energy-efficient commercial water heating equipment in Federal buildings. | |
SA 1550 | Wyden, Chambliss | Weighing Intelligence for Smarter Energy Act of 2007. Director of National Intelligence to submit to Congress a report on the long-term energy security of the United States. | |
SA 1551 | Cantwell | Federal Standby Power Standard. | |
SA 1556 | Lincoln, Domenici, Pryor, Craig, and Landrieu | Clarifies regulatory scheme for the application, transportation, or storage of livestock manure or poultry litter as energy or fuel production feedstock. | |
SA 1557 | Klobuchar, Snowe, Bingaman | National Greenhouse Gas Registry. Establishes a national greenhouse gas registry. | |
SA 1558 | Obama | Health Care for Hybrids. Federal government will reimburse automakers up to 10% of the total health care costs for retired autoworkers, with the caveat that at least 50% of the reimbursement is put research, development production and worker retraining for fuel-efficient vehicles. Program ends in 2017. | |
SA 1559 | Hagel | Energy-related Regulatory Reform. | |
SA 1560 | Hagel | Tax incentives for the production and conservation of energy. Includes special measures for cellulosic ethanol plants, ethanol pipelines, and coal-to-liquids facilities. | |
SA 1561 | Kohl | Establishes a Strategic Refinery Reserve. Refinery reserve represents excess production capacity that can be used in emergencies. Reserve refineries can be new or reopened closed refineries. |
Proposed Amendments to Senate Energy Bill (amended H.R.6) 14 June 07 | |||
---|---|---|---|
Amendment | Sponsor(s) | Title and/or notes | |
SA 1562 | Dorgan and Craig | Domestic Offshore Energy Security Act. | |
SA 1563 | Dorgan, Craig and Kerry | Support for installation of E85 pumps at retail stations. | |
SA 1564 | Tester | Energy-Efficient Schools. Establishes a program to improve the energy-efficiency of, and use of renewable energy in, school buildings. | |
Warner | Authorizes governor of Virginia to petition for offshore gas exploration and extraction 50 miles off the coast. Rejected by Yea-Nay vote of 43-44, 14 June. | ||
SA 1567 | Bingaman and Domenici | Demonstration program for cost-effectiveness of advanced insulation. | |
SA 1568 | Bingaman and Domenici | Coordination of planned outages of refineries. | |
SA 1569 | Bingaman and Domenici | Amends technical criteria for proposed Clean Coal Power Initiative. | |
SA 1570 | Inhofe, Thune and Craig | Pollution audits and reports. Requires detailed bi-annual audit of any funds of more than $100,000 disbursed by National Pollution Funds Center. | |
SA 1571 | Hagel | Facilitate information sharing about and accelerate development of energy-related research. | |
SA 1572 | Salazar, Bayh, Brownback, Lieberman, Coleman, Cantwell, Lincoln, Clinton, Biden, Klobuchar, Durbin | Electric-Drive Transportation Program. Promotes the development of plug-in electric vehicles, deploying near-term programs to electrify the transportation sector, and including electric drive vehicles in the fleet purchasing programs. Agreed to by voice vote, 14 June. | |
SA 1573 | Bingaman, Klobuchar, Reid, Cardin, Salazar | Amendment to amendment SA 1537 (Renewable Portfolio Standard). | |
SA 1574 | Lautenberg | Federal Greenhouse Gas Emissions. Establishes a Federal Emissions Inventory Office within the EPA. | |
SA 1575 | Voinovich, Carper and Inhofe | Amends loan guarantee authority for commercial technology. | |
SA 1576 | Inhofe | Program to accelerate use of geothermal heat pumps at General Services Administration facilities. | |
SA 1577 | Martinez | Establishes a number of penalties and sanctions applied to persons who contribute to Cuba’s development of the undersea hydrocarbon resources off of its north coast. | |
Menendez, Lautenberg and Dole | Modifies amendment SA 1566 to require consent by states within 100 miles of the coastal waters of Virginia. Withdrawn, based on rejection of SA 1566. | ||
SA 1579 | Obama | National Low-Carbon Fuel Standard. Establishes a full lifecycle-based low-carbon fuel standard requiring reduction in average lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions per unit of energy of the aggregate quantity of fuels:
| |
SA 1580 | Bayh, Brownback, Lieberman, Coleman, Salazar | Adds methanol to listing of renewable fuels. | |
SA 1581 SA 1607 |
Gregg, Feinstein, Sununu, Kyl, Ensign | Elimination of ethanol tariff. | |
SA 1582 | Martinez | Encourages biofuel blenders to share credits with pipeline and common storage facilities. | |
SA 1583 | Martinez | Accelerates waiver procedure for fuel blends. | |
SA 1584 | Martinez | Categorization of certain blends of gasoline of not more than 3.7% oxygen, by weight, such that the gasoline is equivalent to E-10 gasoline. | |
SA 1585 | Lautenberg and Menendez | State liability for costs incurred by other States as a result of oil or natural gas spill from offshore production. | |
SA 1587 | Brown | Renewable Energy Innovation Manufacturing Partnership Program. Makes grants to eligible entities for use in carrying out research, development, and demonstration relating to the manufacturing of renewable energy technologies. | |
SA 1588 | Brown | Development of a carbon labelling system for goods sold in the US. | |
SA 1589 | Brown | Directs DOE to give financial assistance preference to higher-education for-profit partnerships involved in the development of liquid crystal, photovoltaic, and wind technologies. | |
SA 1590 | Brown | Adds “institutions of higher education, and nonprofit hospitals” to local government buildings for receiving assistance. | |
SA 1591 | Brown | Preference given to existing and former DOE facilities and sites for the conduct of projects and activities. | |
SA 1592 | Brown | Emissions standards for watercraft and small spark-ignition engines. | |
SA 1593 | Isakson | Amendment to alternative average fuel economy standard for low-volume manufacturers and new entrants. | |
SA 1594 | Durbin | Study of establishment of a refined petroleum product reserve. | |
SA 1595 | Kohl | Set asides for auto- and component-makers employing less than 500 people. | |
SA 1596 | Kohl | Study of adequacy of refining infrastructure. | |
SA 1597 | Inouye and Dorgan | Study of the adequacy of transportation of domestically-produced renewable fuel by railroads and other means of transportation. | |
SA 1598 | Inhofe | Adds Gas-to-Liquids and Coal-to-Liquids to renewable fuels standard. | |
SA 1599 | Inhofe | Study on modernization of the hydrocarbon reserves disclosures classification system of the Commission to reflect advances in reserves recovery from nontraditional sources (such as deep water, oil shale, tar sands, and renewable reserves for cellulosic biofuels feedstocks). | |
SA 1600 | Inhofe | Evaluation of Fischer-Tropsch Transportation Fuels. Originally part of SA 1505, which was rejected.
| |
SA 1601 | Inhofe | Enables sale of additional credits by the Federal government to refineries, blenders, and importers at a price of $1.00 per gallon of gasoline equivalent to meet obligations under the renewable fuels standard. | |
SA 1602 | Inhofe | Transitional assistance for farmers who plant dedicated energy crops for a local cellulosic ethanol facility. | |
SA 1603 | Brown | Amends performance goals for Federal government:
| |
SA 1604 | Schumer | Updates state building energy efficiency codes and standards. | |
SA 1605 | Schumer | State requirements for energy efficiency. | |
SA 1606 | Schumer | In the absence of Federal determination or a standard for energy-efficiency of an appliance, no State standard to be pre-empted. | |
SA 1608 | Corker | Expands definition of clean fuel: | |
SA 1609 | Thune | Report on electric transmission corridors. |
There's an old saying comparing law to sausage. You don't want to watch either being made.
Posted by: Cervus | 15 June 2007 at 09:21 AM
Cervus alludes to the body parts, fat and pork making up this legislation. But the definition offered of "clean energy" is beyond comprehension.
"clean energy being defined as including nuclear, carbon capture and sequestration, efficient, and efficiency and demand programs."
Where in even the wilds of metaphorical speculation does carbon capture and sequestration produce energy? "Efficient and efficiency and demand programs"?? These law makers need to focus of freeing information and materials necessary to jumpstart alternative technologies and less time on capturing and sequestering the elemental building blocks of life on Earth.
Carbon, dear legislators is not the enemy. Ignorance is.
Posted by: gr | 15 June 2007 at 10:35 AM
I agree that the legislators tend to take a very expansive view of these things, but I would definitely include efficiency programs in the mix. We need to use less fossil fuel and emit less CO2, and one surefire way to do that is to develop and adopt more energy efficient ways to do lighting, climate control, and transportation, among others.
Posted by: Lou Grinzo | 15 June 2007 at 11:24 AM
While carbon capture would be an improvement, it needs to be understood that it would reduce efficiency from 25 to 40 percent. Even under full sequestration, the CO2 emission factor of a "clean" coal plant would be about 220 to 260 grams per kw hour--- ten times higher than emission factors for wind, hydro, or nuclear energy.
And all of the above assumes that CO2 sequestration is feabile and that the CO2 can be sequestered indefinitely, perhaps a more daunting task than storing nuclear wastes.
For the foreseeable future, we need to maintain baseload generation to support wind and solar. I don't see any alternative other than nuclear.
The payback from conservation programs will continue to generally be higher than the payback from fossil or alternative energy programs. So, I can think it is perfectly appropriate to include conservation and efficiency under the definition of renewable fuel. Semantically, it may be a problem, but the important thing is results, not whether the legislation is semantically correct.
Posted by: tom | 15 June 2007 at 12:17 PM
"reduce efficiency from 25 to 40 percent"
tom: do you have a source for that?
Posted by: Neil | 15 June 2007 at 12:24 PM
'Some 100 amendments to the energy bill under deliberation in the Senate emerged'
the rats are getting on the ship.
Posted by: K | 15 June 2007 at 01:01 PM
What a mess. The biggest dog is probably SA 1598: "Adds Gas-to-Liquids and Coal-to-Liquids to renewable fuels standard."
How does converting a fossil fuel from one state to another make it renewable?
Posted by: PeakVT | 15 June 2007 at 01:38 PM
As always people fail to see WHY thepower companies and many govs realy love clean coal.
Sequestration isnt the big issue many think as all it does is capture the co2 and liquify it and transport it to be used by the oil companies instead of water to keep well pressure up.
Its not a huge deal in the long run it just needs some serious help early on to get it up NOW. And concidering us china and india all depend on coal....
ALSO a huge but little know fact.. clean coal allows use of brown and green coals.. far far more common then the cleaner black coal burned now.
Also part of thisis about co2 and a larger portion is about energy independance.. thus things you dont like are important to cut imports and keep us from having to blow up even more people.
Posted by: wintermane | 15 June 2007 at 02:23 PM
Neil.
This is from a letter to World Watch, July/August 2007 from Luc Gagnon, senior advisor on Climate Change for the electric utility Hydro-Quebec. Seems like a credible source, although I don't have a detailed study.
In any event, it is clear that the process does use energy -- how much will, I'm sure, be a matter of debate.
To store the volumes we are talking about will be a big deal. Carbon content is 70-80 percent of coal. Try storing that on a worldwide basis.
While sequestration may be worthwhile, as usual, it will be an excuse to build coal plants like crazy, conservation and renewable energy be damned.
Also, Mr. Gagnon states that carbon capture will be 85%, not 100%.
And, of course, ccs is still in the R&D stage. In the mean time, those coal plants continue to get built without it, the vast majority of which will not be ccs ready.
Every time we think we have discovered the latest silver bullet, we find that it is made of lead, or perhaps, carbon.
Posted by: tom | 15 June 2007 at 06:27 PM
I'm curious. Maybe someone can point out what part of the United States Constitution gives Congress the authority to legislate these types of regulations. In fact, the last time I checked, the 10th Amendment specifically forbids this type of activity by Congress.
To paraphrase poster gr: "Carbon, dear legislators is not the enemy. Ignorance (of the Constitution)is."
Posted by: terry | 15 June 2007 at 08:26 PM
I'm curious. Maybe someone can point out what part of the United States Constitution gives Congress the authority to legislate these types of regulations.
I can. Section 8, paragraph 3.
To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;
The raw materials are often mined on Federal land, they are carried across state lines on Federal infrastructure, and emit pollutants that cross state lines.
Section 8, paragraph 3 my friend. It's a slam dunk.
Posted by: stomv | 16 June 2007 at 05:32 AM
The energy bill that was passed in 2005 was in the wings since 2001, but no one would consider it, because it was such a blatant give away to the energy companies. Remember the VPs energy meeting that was kept secret?
The 2005 energy bill was made less of a give away, but still had to do with production and drilling. Now they are considering consumption and sustainability.
We seesaw back and forth in this country when we should be striving for a consistent policy that bridges the various administrations.
Posted by: GreenCarGuy | 16 June 2007 at 05:51 AM
GCG, the VP did not hold secret meetings with CEOs of energy companies. The meetings were well publicized although notes were not published. The results were published in May of 2001, it is titled THE NATIONAL ENERGY POLICY.
The 2005 Energy Bill was a very comprehensive and excellent piece of legislation. It is obvious GCG did not read any of it.
Posted by: Kit P. | 18 June 2007 at 04:07 PM
of these amendments which ones were passed?
Posted by: dan | 25 June 2007 at 01:00 PM
I cant believe it is taking so long to see meaningful legislationg coming from congress or the senate regarding these vital issues, that should have been dealt with over 20 years ago. the time for environmental leadership is now. gas prices are above record highs, we are using and consuming more oil than ever. I think we need to pass many of the above mentioned recomendations plus the sanders boxer global warming bill, that is the only way we can start saving billions at the gas pump, switch to a sustainable fuel and economy and possibly be the free nation we claim to be. hopefully these proposals dont linger in congress for too long.
Posted by: Alex | 29 September 2007 at 09:21 AM