GOOD NEWS FOR NEW ENERGY, GOOD NEWS FOR THE U.S. OF A.

HOUSE LEGISLATION FORESEES THE NEW ENERGY FUTURE
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The House of Representatives Saturday afternoon passed Energy Legislation which included the Udall-Platts amendment requiring private utilities to obtain 15% of their electricity from renewable sources such as wind, solar, biomass, wave-tide-current and geothermal energies by 2020.

The passage of this legislation, as amended, is expected to give a huge boost to the development of the renewable energy industries. The requirement for renewables-generated electricity, known as a national Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) or Renewable Electricity Standard (RES), is expected to add hundreds of thousands of domestic jobs, decrease dependence on foreign energy sources, offer great economic opportunities to builders of power transmission and rural landowners, and cut back on the emission of greenhouse gases thought to be the cause of global warming.

The power of the New Energy future.

Opponents claim the legislation will cause increases in utility rates while advocates cite numerous studies finding otherwise.

Later Saturday, the House passed energy tax legislation that shifts some $16 billion in federal revenues to incentives for renewables by reducing incentives and subsidies to oil and gas producers. The House is now in recess until after Labor Day.

The final stage of energy legislation will come in the Fall when House and Senate leaders from both parties meet in conference to reconcile differences in bills passed by the separate bodies this Summer. Insiders intimate that the Democrats have positioned themselves as carefully as possible by passing auto fuel efficiency standards in the Senate bill and the RPS in the House bill while including substantial legislation incentivizing anti-climate change measures in both bills. The strong position, it is said, will be needed by Democrats when they confront a White House long understood to be close to the fossil fuels industries and a President even now being urged to veto the energy legislation.