SENATE ENERGY BILL: RIP

Politics is not a profession for the idealistic.

Senate passes pro-renewables energy bill
H. Josef Hebert and Ken Thomas, June 21, 2007 (AP via Yahoo News)

WHO
US Senate, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.
Despite democratic leaders’ pronouncements of victory, NewEnergyNews will say what the mainstream news will not: The Emperor’s belly button is exposed.

WHAT
The Senate passed its version of an energy bill, all promise and no program. The House will start brawling on the subject next week. They are not expected to get to the conference battle until later in the year.

WHEN
Final vote June 21, in the dark of night, like criminals hustling something away.

WHERE
This was a bill settled not out in the open of the Senate chamber but in the dark corners of deal-making, where a semblance of CAFÉ standards got by in exchange for almost everything else of real value.

WHY
- Why? Because there are two sides to every question, and one of them is Big Money. Power generation is left to Big Coal and Big Gas. Nothing will be done to upgrade the grid or bring wind online.
Passed--
- CAFÉ standard: 35 mpg cars (now 27.5 mpg), 22.2 mpg SUVs/small trucks by 2020 (giving Big Oil ample time to run out its inventory despite the national security dangers and tailpipe emissions).
- Half of new cars by 2015 run on 85% ethanol or biodiesel fuels (which makes Big Ag happy).
- 36 billion gallons/yr corn or cellulosic ethanol substitute for gasoline by 2022 (meaning they think we can grow our way out of this).
- Price-gouging outlawed and investigated by feds (unless the Bush administration’s rumored objection to this provision – that’s right, they favor gouging – gets it axed in conference negotiations).
- New appliance/lighting efficiency standards w/requirements for public buildings.
- Grants, loan guarantees and other assistance for R&D into fuel efficient vehicles, including hybrids, advanced diesel and battery technologies (which will keep people on the “grant dole” – and doesn’t NewEnergyNews wish it was one – quiet).
- Funding for large-scale “clean” coal w/sequestration demonstration plants (which Big Coal should be more than happy to undertake itself just to keep its product viable in a climate changing world).
very slow going (click to enlarge)

QUOTES
Feinstein on the CAFÉ standards provision: "It closes the SUV loophole…This is a victory for the American public."

The climate of the world is changing but that damned SUV loophole is closed, thank goodness.