House approves energy bill with off-shore drilling, tax credit extensions for renewables, RES

(Photo of Capitol Building from Flickr and photographer seansie/Sean Hayford O'Leary)

Washington Report: The House on Tuesday voted 236-89 to pass a comprehensive energy package that allowed for more off-shore drilling but at the same time rolled back oil tax breaks to fund renewable energy and efficiency. HR 6899 would:
• Allow drilling more than 100 miles of both coasts and, if states said OK, drilling 50 miles off their shore; maintained the ban on drilling within 125 of the west coast of Florida; protected Georges Bank fishing grounds off New England from drilling.
• Create a renewable electricity standard (RES) mandating 15% of electric power come from renewable sources by 2020, though one-fourth of the mandate could be met with efficiency.
• Roll back $18 billion in oil tax breaks to fund renewable energy and conservation.
• Extend investment tax credits for solar energy 8 years, production tax credits for wind 1 year, and other renewables like geothermal and wave energy 3 years.
• Make $1 billion in tax credits available for coal plants that use carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology.
• Lift a moratorium on oil shale leasing in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming, though the states must pass laws to permit it.

The politics behind the bill
Environmental groups, while liking the renewable provisions, objected to the bill’s offshore drilling, oil shale and CCS provisions. Democrats said they backed down on offshore drilling because public opinion favors it and they wanted to give cover to moderate Dems in tough re-election fights. They also noted the offshore drilling ban expires at the end of September, which would permit drilling as close as 3 miles offshore if Congress doesn’t act. They added CCS and oil shale at the last minute to garner more support. GOP leaders, who wanted much broader offshore drilling, complained they had no input into the bill and said it would not add to domestic oil production because states would have no financial incentive to allow drilling off their shores. The White House threatened to veto the bill, based on the rollback of oil tax breaks and the RES. (Sources: Congressional Quarterly, E&E Daily,
thedailygreen.com)

House Dems back down on offshore drilling

(Photo of drilling platform off Santa Barbara that caused big spill in 1969 from Flickr and photographer Doc Searls)

Washington Report: Facing the threat that the ban on offshore drilling will be allowed to expire Sept. 30, House Democrats are expanding the drilling provision in their new energy package to include drilling 100 miles offshore and as close as 50 miles off the east and west coasts if states want it. Their ace in the hole is that they haven’t included royalties for the states, which makes it less likely states will opt in. The plan maintains a ban within 125 miles of Florida’s gulf coast until 2022. Also, in an effort to bring coal-state reps onboard, the plan now would spend $10 billion over 10 years on carbon capture and storage technology. A third new item is more vehicles using natural gas as fuel. The package also includes:
• A renewable electricity standard (RES) of 15% by 2020, one-fourth of which can be met with efficiency
• Extension of tax credits for renewable energy and efficiency
• Pressure on oil companies to drill where they have existing leases, such as Alaska
• Repeal of Big Oil tax breaks and royalty subsidies
• Release of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve
• More money for public transit

The package is expected to go to the Rules Committee Monday and be voted on as early as Tuesday. The GOP has its own bill – The American Energy Bill – which calls for much wider offshore drilling, drilling in ANWR, and more use of oil shale and nuclear plants, as well as expanded renewables and efficiency.

In the Senate, the “Gang of 10” bill picked up 4 more sponsors this week: Susan Collins (R-Me.), Amy Kobluchar (D-Minn.), Elizabeth Dole (R-N.C.) and Evan Bayh (D-Ind.), doubling the original 10. That bill is also expected to come up next week, along with two alternatives. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said he'd like to vote first on the tax credit extensions before bringing up broader bills. For more on the “Gang of 10” and background on the House bill, see EarthlingAngst’s Sept. 5 post. There is an urgency to pass something before the end of the month, when the offshore moratorium expires, allowing drilling within 3 miles of shore. With elections at hand and public sentiment buying the argument that drilling is the answer, it’s clear that science is not winning out this time. (Source: E&E Daily)


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Voinovich says wait 22 years for cap-and-trade, touts alternative to global warming bill

(Photo of Capitol Building from Flickr and photographer Jonathon D. Colman.)

Washington Report: As proponents for the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act meet behind closed doors with various Senators to gauge what tweaking would be needed to get the requisite 60 votes for their cap-and-trade bill, Sen. John Voinovich (R-Ohio) has drafted a bill of his own. It drops cap-and-trade in favor of incentives for new technologies, including for “clean coal” and nuclear energy. Cap-and-trade would not be enacted until 2030, so that carbon-capture technology could be operational. (What’s another 22 years' wait?) Voinovich claims Lieberman-Warner would disastrous for the economy. Lobbyists and the White House helped him draft his bill, which should be unveiled soon – except that so far he can’t find a Democrat to co-sponsor. Meanwhile, a coalition of major coal companies and the National Mining Assn. have 14 amendments that would provide incentives for carbon capture and storage, give away more free carbon credits to polluting industry, pre-empt state and regional global warming bills, and create a “safety valve” in case carbon prices get too high. So far, they’ve found no sponsors for their amendments. I don't think any of this will go anywhere, but don't look for Voinovich to vote for Lieberman-Warner. Environmental Defense tell us 10 key senators to watch during the debate in the Senate. Senators will be home the last week in May, before the June debate, so it would be a good time to call their office or go see them and urge them to strengthen, not weaken the Lieberman-Warner bill (S 2191). (Sources: E&E Daily, Environmental Defense)

Coal demand from abroad sparks U.S. and UK exports, despite impact on global warming

(Photo of coal loader in West Virginia from Flickr and photographer OZinOH)

News Update: Growing demand from the Third World, and the subsequent rise in prices, has turned coal into a major export for the U.S. for the first time in years and has sparked a revival in Britain, where shuttered mines are reopening. (Carbon emissions be damned. There’s money to be made!) The export boom here is helping the coal business grow at a time when environmentally wary communities have delayed or stopped more than 50 new coal-fired plants in the U.S. Environmentalists criticize both countries. “Any rise in coal use around the world is bad news for the environment,” said Alice McKeown of the Sierra Club. Both countries insist that “clean coal” must be part of the mix to meet the energy demand of the future, but so far no system is operating on a commercial scale that can clean up or capture and store the carbon emissions that cause global warming. (For more, see the New York Times. and PlanetArk)

Polar bears vs. Bush: the lawsuit

News update: Alaska natives and environmental groups filed suit last week to block the Interior Dept.’s Feb. 6 sale of oil and gas leases in 30 million acres of the Chukchi Sea, home to 10% of the world’s remaining polar bears. The bears are already threatened by the rapidly melting Arctic ice they use as a base for finding food. Several weeks ago the administration announced the delay of a decision about endangered-species status for the bears until after the oil lease sale. Then administration officials told a House hearing that oil exploration would not threaten the bears. This despite an earlier environmental impact study by scientists in their own department that said there’s a 33-51% chance of a major oil spill. “Polar bears do not do well with oil,” according Steven Armstrup of the U.S. Geological Survey. “Most likely it would be fatal.” (Sources: E&E Daily, E&E News PM, AP) (Photo courtesy of Flickr and photographer mape_s.)

Poll: 62% see warming as threat, but few take action
A poll of 11,000 Americans revealed that 62% of adults and 79% of children see global warming as a very serious problem. (23% of the adults were unsure.) And 57% of the adults and 74% of the kids said warming is a threat to all life on the planet. (27% of the adults were unsure, an option the kids apparently didn’t have.) Many support recycling, driving fuel-efficient cars and using less energy at home, but few are doing much about it. Democrats were 3 times as likely to see global warming as a danger, but only a little more likely to take action. The survey was conducted by George Mason University. Lead author Edward Maibach said there is growing fear about the topic but not enough information on what people can do. (Source: USA Today)

FutureGen out, smaller coal projects in – but when?
That didn’t last long. The feds pulled the plug last week on a $1.8 billion carbon-sequestration project, after Mattoon, Ill. was announced as the site in December. The huge demonstration project, planned since 2003, was to test whether carbon can be successfully captured and stored underground (forever) so that coal can be burned without emitting greenhouse gases. But what originally was to cost $1 billion grew to almost double that amount over the past 5 years.
The government says it will instead provide (less) money to create a much smaller pilot project and help new or existing coal plants add capture and sequestration. (Sources: PlanetArk, E&E PM)

UN says global warming could cost up to $20 trillion
Putting the world on a clean-energy trajectory and helping poor countries adapt to global warming could cost the world $15 trillion to $20 trillion over the next 20-25 years, a new UN report says. Now, the energy sector spends about $300 billion a year on new plants and other investment. (I’m struggling with the math here – too many zeroes.) The report is in preparation for a 2-day UN debate in mid-February on climate policy and adaptation. (Source: AP)

Etc.: Whole Foods trashes plastic bags … U.S. wind power up 45% in 2007 … Florida starts Green Lodging certification … Japan eyes network of offshore wind farms … high gas prices spur Americans to buy fuel-efficient cars … global carbon trade up 80% last year … ancient plants and moss exposed after 1,600 years in Arctic melt.