ENERGY GAMES – THE HOUSE VOTES

Anybody who hasn’t been watching the shifts in presidential-race electoral college polls probably won’t be too interested in this post.

That’s what the daylong debate in Congress was about, the November election. Yes, the vote that came at the debate’s climax was on H.R. 6899, the Comprehensive American Energy Security and Consumer Protection Act and members talked all day about energy. But really it was about positioning for the coming election. The measure passed, 236-189.

As predicted in Monday’s lead post ( ENERGY DEAL OR GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN?), the real sticking points were drilling and money. The Republicans want drilling rights in more of the federally protected areas than the Democrats are willing to give. The Democrats will allow states to decide on extended drilling rights but only if they get the revenues to fund New Energy in return.

Both parties know that state legislatures won’t take the political risk to allow more drilling if they can’t get the revenues.

The result was obvious from the beginning. It is something of a triumph for House Democrats because they will be able to declare during their fall election campaigns they voted “yes” on drilling even though the legislation has no chance of getting through the Senate. House Republicans have capitalized on the popularity of “drill, baby, drill” but will now be able to take only assertions about the inadequacy and hypocrisy of the Democrats’ legislation into the campaign, a much harder sell.

But it was only something of a triumph for Democrats. Environmentalists condemned the legislation. Frances Beinecke, President, Natural Resources Defense Council: "As it stands, the clean energy provisions in this bill are dwarfed by the push for outdated, dirty and expensive energy…"

And yet the Democrats passed it.

Political necessity forced the move. Newt Gingrich’s American Solutions lobbying group’s campaign convinced the public “drill, baby, drill” was the answer to high gas prices. (See ENERGY DEAL OR GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN? and Mixing Oil and Politics Is Formula for Newt’s “Solutions”) Going into the fall election, Democrats needed to show they could be for drilling.

The most bipartisan thing that has happened in months, maybe years: Because everybody knew the bill will not get through the Senate, the Democratic bill offered Republicans who chose to do so the opportunity to vote FOR drilling. 15 of 191 House Republicans did so.

Members of Congress gave speeches all day long about how the other side is wrong and they are right.

Democrats and Republicans all say the opposing party is playing partisan politics while they are working in the best interests of the people.

Both sides agree the other side is being cynical and deceiving voters.

Both sides agree their proposals are the better ideas and the other side’s proposals are all wrong.

It is amazing, based on the most cursory scrutiny of the legislation, how much untruth about it was heard in arguments presented by both sides.

All day long, NewEnergyNews had the nagging impulse to turn off C-SPAN and turn on some kind of sporting event where the voices screaming at least are honest about the fact that they are neither right nor wrong but merely rooting and cheering.

There are many, many provisions other than the ones for drilling in the legislation. Not enough for some, too many for others.

The best news: Many New Enery items, including the national Renewable Electricity Standard (RES) and the production tax credit (PTC) and investment tax credit (ITC) extensions, remain.

The outcome in the House is pretty irrelevant. If energy legislation emerges from this Congress, it will be based on the Senate measure that came out of the Gang of 20’s bipartisan compromise, New Energy Reform Act of 2008

That Senate legislation will be debated later in the week.

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Energy Day: Your Guide to Today’s Congressional Oil Debate
Keith Johnson, September 16, 2008 (Wall Street Journal)
and
House to vote on offshore drilling Tuesday
Ayesha Rascoe (w/Tom Doggett and Richard Cowan), September 16, 2008 (Reuters)
and
Key provisions of House energy bill
September 16, 2008 (AP)
and
House Adopts Plan to Ease Offshore Drilling Ban
Carl Hulse, September 16, 2008 (NY Times)

WHO
Congressional Republicans and Democrats

WHAT
H.R. 6899, the Comprehensive American Energy Security and Consumer Protection Act

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WHEN
- Energy bill vote: Tuesday, September 16, 2008.
- Senate energy games begin: Wednesday, September 17 or thereafter.
- Congressional recess scheduled to begin: September 26, 2008.
- Election Day: November 4, 2008.

WHERE
The U.S. House of Representatives

WHY
- The bill:
(1) Opens federal offshore areas beyond 50 miles to oil and gas drilling.
(2) Creates New Energy initiatives (extends tax credits for wind and solar energy industries, creates new tax credits for plug-in hybrid cars, energy efficiencies, cellulosic ethanol and other biofuels, and promotes bicycle communting).
(3) Funds the New Energy initiatives with repeals of $18 billion in oil and gas industry tax breaks with revenues derived from new and owed revenues for offshore drilling.
(4) Opens federal lands including parts of Alaska but not ANWR to drilling and parts of Utah and Colorado to oil shale development with states approval.
(5) Funds ethics lessons and drug testing for MMS employees.
(6) Creates hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for “clean” coal testing.
(7) Requires the release of 70 billion barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

It wasn't this bad but it wasn't a lot better. (click to enlarge)

QUOTES
- Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif): "The choice on the floor today is the status quo that is preferred by Big Oil...or a change for the future to take our country in a new direction…Republicans must set aside their drill only mentality and embrace the provisions of this legislation, which is balanced, which is comprehensive, which respects the needs of the consumer..."
- House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio): “We are engaged in exactly what the American people are sick of, and that is political games here in Washington that are intended to be political games and have no outcome…”
- Representative Dan Boren (D-Okla): “It represents a critical turning point…Today is the day we begin to open our domestic opportunities.”
- Representative Don Young (R-Alaska): “It is a Peter Pan story…It is a figment of the imagination. It is a political gimmick.”