... that would also free us from handing our tax dollars over to ExxonMobil, the most profitable business in history.
Aside from the suicidal commitment to burning fossil fuels, giving government handouts to the oil industry -- which has been on its feet for 100 years -- is mystifying and pretty outrageous when you think about it.
More at the Washington Post
From Rep Inslee's site.
Aside from the suicidal commitment to burning fossil fuels, giving government handouts to the oil industry -- which has been on its feet for 100 years -- is mystifying and pretty outrageous when you think about it.
Quote:
| White House Signals That It Might Veto Energy Bill By Steven Mufson Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, December 4, 2007; Page D01 Efforts by members of Congress to pass an energy bill hit another bump yesterday when the White House suggested that President Bush might veto the bill, but Democratic leaders said they would not alter the package assembled last week after intense negotiating over fuel efficiency standards. Allan B. Hubbard, director of the National Economic Council, said in a letter yesterday to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) that the energy package failed to meet criteria he set out in October and that "it appears Congress may intend to produce a bill the President cannot sign." But after Pelosi met for more than an hour with Hubbard at the Capitol last night, her spokesman, Drew Hammill, said that "the speaker is hopeful that, when the president reviews the final bill language, he will join the business, labor and environmental communities and support this legislation." Hubbard objected to a provision that would require utilities to use renewable electricity sources for at least 15 percent of their power generation by 2020. The provision would allow utilities to count energy efficiency as up to 4 percent of that amount. Many utilities in the Southeast, especially Southern Co. of Atlanta, have complained that they cannot meet this target, and Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) said it would make the bill "untenable for many in the Senate." But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), when asked whether there were enough votes to pass the energy package in the Senate, said: "I think, yes, we do have enough votes. But time will tell." |
Quote:
| Key features of the New Apollo Energy Act: * Clean Energy: New Apollo provides $49 billion in government loan guarantees for the construction of clean-energy generation facilities that will produce power from wind, solar, geothermal, biomass, oceans, coal with carbon-sequestration technology, and other sources. The legislation also commits $10.5 billion to research-and-development and investment tax credits for clean energy-producing operations. In addition, it includes a 10-year extension of the current tax credit for electricity generated from clean sources. * Oil Savings: The boosts for clean energy and efficiency will make it possible to meet New Apollo's call for notable reductions in daily domestic oil consumption -- cuts of 600,000 barrels a day by 2010, 1,700,000 barrels by 2015, and 3,000,000 barrels by 2020. These numbers are estimates of the amount of oil the United States would soon be importing daily from Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and the entire Middle East, respectively, without a change in current policy. * Fuel Efficiency: The best way to generate energy is to not waste it, so New Apollo includes incentives for American consumers to drive fuel-efficient vehicles, including tax credits for the purchase of hybrid, alternative-fuel, low-emission advanced diesel, and fuel-cell vehicles. It also provides $11.5 billion in tax credits for the automotive and aerospace industries to develop new fuel efficient automobiles and planes, retool existing plants, and construct new plants to manufacture energy efficient vehicles. * Global Warming and Greenhouse Gas Emissions: New Apollo enacts a proposal similar to the McCain-Lieberman Climate Stewardship Act by capping our emissions of greenhouse gases while allowing companies to purchase and trade credits among themselves to ensure the most cost-effective reductions, and funding research to help industries make the shift to cleaner operations. The bill targets one of the biggest greenhouse-gas offenders -- coal -- by providing $7 billion in loan guarantees for the development of clean coal power plants. * Clean Energy Jobs: New Apollo will close the existing technology gap with foreign competitors by investing billions of dollars in new federal research into advanced clean technologies, and creating a government-funded risk pool to help struggling start-up clean-energy companies commercialize their products. One study by the Apollo Alliance has found that a substantial federal commitment to clean energy could yield up to 3.3 million jobs nationally. * Renewable Portfolio: New Apollo contains a Renewable Portfolio Standard requiring all utilities, by 2021, to produce 10 percent of their electricity from renewable energy sources. There is a cost cap set at 3 cents per kilowatt hour for utilities that purchase renewable energy credits required to meet the standard. Revenue from the cost cap is used to fund grants for the construction of renewable electricity generation facilities in states lacking renewable resources. * Energy Transmission: New Apollo creates national net-metering and interconnection standards that allow homeowners who generate clean energy to reduce their energy bills by feeding surplus electricity back into the grid. New Apollo additionally increases regulatory oversight of energy trading markets, which was a problem during Enron's manipulation of the West Coast energy crisis. * Does Not Increase the Deficit: New Apollo is revenue neutral, and pays for its provisions by closing abusive corporate tax shelters and loopholes, and through auctioning off some of the allowances under the carbon dioxide trading program. |
