NOW IS THE TIME: SENATE TO VOTE ON NEW ENERGY

To paraphrase former President Gerald Ford, our long national embarrassment goes on.

While 10,000+ delegates from 190+ nations at the Bali climate change summit work to confront one of the most pressing energy and environmental matters of all time, US representatives block meaningful action there and the current administration blocks political action here.

White House and senatorial minions of the fossil fuels industries and utilities have all but eviscerated the energy bill that is being debated in the Senate as this is being posted. (Watch live on C-SPAN.) The Renewable Electricity Standard (RES) that would require utilities to obtain 15% of their electricity from renewable sources by 2020 has been removed from the bill.

While a significant package of incentives for New Energy is still in the legislation, the White House says it intends to veto if such incentives remain when it comes to the President’s desk. Senate Majority Leader Reid is frantically trying to scour up 60 votes to bring the bill to a vote and force the issue.

A lot IS at stake. Click the links. Have a say.

Lobbyists for New Energy are imploring supporters to contact their Senators on behalf of the Reid Amendment which contains a 2-year extension for production tax credits (PTCs) for wind energy and an 8-year extension for investment tax credits (ITCs) for solar energy and small wind. The bill also includes funding for efficiency programs and new transmission projects. These measures would sustain New Energy growth until a better day and a more forward-thinking administration come around.

Send letters of solicitous appeal or clamoring entreaty:

POWER OF WIND or SOLAR NATION

Don’t hesitate. Be a part of this historic moment.

This endgame has been the likeliest outcome since Congress took up the legislation last spring. Lawmakers see it all in political terms. Republicans are betting Americans are focused on the price of gas and will believe what the American Petroleum Institute says about the bill: "The tweaks the Senate has made to the counterproductive House energy bill will do nothing to produce more, much-needed oil and natural gas supplies for American consumers…"

Democrats think that with November 2008 just around the corner they will be better off selling what Reid says: "This is an opportunity for Republicans to stand with Americans who are paying more than ever at the pump, instead of with the big oil companies who are raking in record profits…"

No matter which way the Senate goes, the White House remains an obstacle. A veto would not only protect Big Oil, it would please Detroit’s Big 3 automakers by throwing the new, stiffer US vehicle mileage standards out with the rest of the legislation.

Every poll underscores the incontrovertible fact that the American public wants New Energy. It is vital remind the Senate of that:

POWER OF WIND or SOLAR NATION

In the end, however, there may be only one consolation: November 2008 just around the corner.

Senate Offers Modified $21.8 Billion Energy Tax Package
Siobhan Hughes, December 12, 2007 (Dow Jones Newswires via CNNMoney)
and
Democrats in Senate put energy challenge to Bush; They plan to keep provision raising taxes on oil and gas giants
David Ivanovich, December 12, 2007 (Houston Chronicle)
and
Senate energy bill calls Bush’s bluff on veto
Tom Doggett (with Matthew Lewis), December 12, 2007 (Reuters via Yahoo News)

WHO
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nv), Leading Republican and Democratic Senators, President Bush

Government policy determines New Energy growth. Click the links. Have a say.

WHAT
The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, passed in the House of Representatives with such hoopla but now altered significantly, is expected any moment on the floor of the Senate for debate, amendment and decision. In the absence of the long-sought RES, New Energy advocates can look to extensions of PTCs and ITCs as important enough to try to get their Senators to support the bill.

POWER OF WIND or SOLAR NATION

WHEN
- The legislation provides a 2-year extension on the PTCs for wind and an 8-year extension on ITCs for solar.
- It is expected to come to the Senate floor for debate and decision on Thursday, December 13 but if the threatened White House veto keeps 60 Senators from supporting it, debate could be delayed or prevented by threat of filibuster.
- There is speculation that if the bill gets as far as the White House action will be delayed until after the holiday season.

WHERE
Should the Senate pass a version of the bill it would require approval from the House again before it could go to President Bush.

WHY
- Described by a leading Republican as a “millstone” preventing the legislation’s consideration, the RES has been dropped by Senator Reid in hopes that he can find a few Republicans to join him in supporting the shift of incentives and subsidies worth $21.8 billion away from the fossil fuels industries to New Energy.
- The package ends a tax deduction for domestic oil and gas production and limits tax credits on their foreign oil and gas extraction income. The revenue gained would pay for PTCs and ITCs for New Energy as well as funding efficiency measures.
- The PTC allows 2 cents/kilowatt-hour of electricity produced from qualified sources of New Energy and has no maximum.
- The House bill provided an 8-year extension for solar energy ITCs which are invaluable to the solar industry and worth fighting to keep. Wind energy is seeking similar support for small wind.
- Besides shifting money from fossil fuel industry coffers, the Senate legislation introduces new methods to finance the New Energy incentives and efficiency measures.
- The bill also includes financing of new transmission.
- Improvements to mileage requirements for US automakers’ fleets are unchanged from the House bill but would be lost if the entire bill is vetoed unless leaders attach that provision to another bill.

The polls always say so: Americans want New Energy. Do they have to elect new leaders to get it? (click to enlarge)

QUOTES
- Senate Majority Leader Reid: "If it goes to the White House, we would hope that common sense would prevail and the president would sign that…[but] he is impossible, and has been for seven years, to deal with."
- Lee Fuller, Independent Petroleum Association of America:’[Democrats are] certainly throwing down the gauntlet…essentially taxing one industry for the purpose of these broad new policies."
- White House spokesman Scott Stanzel: "We have stated it very clearly that this legislation should not raise taxes and should not single out individual industries as punishment…So, yes, it would be met with a veto."
- Elizabeth Martin-Perera, climate policy specialist, Natural Resources Defense Council: "This is a make-or-break moment…Does he care about oil and gas executives or the American people?"