SENATE COMMITTEE REMAINS COMMITTED TO NEW ENERGY

Renewable power mandate overcomes hurdle in Senate
Ayesha Rascoe (w/Walter Bagley), May 21, 2009 (Reuters)
and
Senate committee repels effort to strike renewable provision
Katherine Ling, May 21, 2009 (NY Times)

SUMMARY
The Senate energy bill’s Renewable Electricity Standard (RES) passed an important test when Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Ala) submitted to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee an amendment that would have removed the RES from the legislation and the Committee voted the amendment down, 13-9.

The proposed Senate RES would require all U.S. regulated utilities to obtain 15% of their power from New Energy sources by 2021. In pursuit of the coalition he hopes will see the energy bill through the Senate, Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Chair of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, compromised his original RES proposal of 20% by 2021.

Bingaman's reduced-to-15% proposal also allows utilities to meet 25% of the requirement by funding new Energy Efficiency measures.

A number of Senators on the Committee (Sanders (I-Vt.), Dorgan (D-ND), Udall (D-Colo) and Cantwell (D-Wash) voted against the amendment in protest for the standard having been weakened to 15%.

Jobs, opportunities for the hearland, revenues to boost the tax base and clean renewable domestic energy – what’s not to like? (click to enlarge)

More serious opposition came from Senators who resent the principle of a national RES and refer to it as “one size fits all” legislation. They reject it on the grounds that it unfairly requires of some states, like those in the Southeast, with relatively less solar and wind assets the same amount of New Energy production as it does of states rich in sun, like those in the Southwest, and rich in wind, like the Great Plains states.

The Senate bill requires states that do not produce enough New Energy to meet the RES requirement to either buy credits from out of state producers or pay an extra 2.1 cents per kilowatt-hour for electricity. Either way, the money would flow to the funding of New Energy.

Senator Sessions and his allies, like the naysayers who tried unsuccessfully to block the House RES measure, argue that the requirement will make their power inordinately expensive while funding technological development in New Energy asset-rich states.

Unlike the House, which brought its RES Committee debate to a crucial affirmative decision before the Memorial Day recess, the Senate Committee will continue its markup process after the holiday break. It has some 49 more amendments to consider and hopes to use the recess to negotiate some of the controversial points.

Senator Bob Corker (R-Tenn) strongly opposed the RES but suggested somewhat enigmatically the measure could eventually bring something of value to the Senate floor. Senator Sam Brownback (R-Kan) voted against the RES in an attempt to leverage Old Energies and the myth of “clean” coal into the measure.

It is the Senators from that blank white space in the lower right corner of the country once known as the solid south and still retaining more than a little stolidity that is the problem. (click to enlarge)

COMMENTARY
H.R. 2454, the House of Representatives energy and climate bill just approved by a key House committee (see the preceding post, SUMMER ON CAPITOL HILL WITH THE ENERGY/CLIMATE BILL), contains an RES requiring regulated utilities to obtain 15% of their power from New Energy sources by 2020. It is expected to win passage by the full House before the end of the year. Should the Senate pass its energy bill, the 2 RESs will need little effort to reconcile in conference.

Like the Senate bill’s provision that utilities can meet 25% of the requirement with efficiencies, the House allows 20% of the requirement to be met in that way. Once again, conference reconciliation should not be difficult.

RES opponents showed similar unity. The cacophony of objections in the Senate Committee to the Bingaman RES echoed those of the objectors to the House RES: The undue cost burden, the disproportionate enrichment of asset-rich states, the refusal to count existing nuclear energy, old hydropower and planned “clean” coal plants toward the RES requirement.

Though the House bill should have little difficulty in winning passage, it will be challenging for Senate Democrats to pull together a filibuster-defeating 60-vote supermajority to get their energy bill past a recalcitrant minority made up of hard-line conservatives like Senator Sessions who are funded by utilities and fossil fuel interests and unwilling to support a national RES.

Only a Senator unconcerned with global climate change would object. (click to enlarge)

A final point about the conference process between the House and the Senate that lies on the far side of the long hard struggle still to come: Even more than the House Republicans, the Senate’s Republican RES opponents were aggressive, virtually adamant, in their demand that nuclear be included into the definition of “renewable” energy. This Republican bicameral unanimity will not be an element of conferencing as long as the Senate, like the House, can hold a large enough Democratic coalition together to pass the bill.

The fight in conference will be between Democratic power brokers. That’s why it will be difficult, if not impossible, for Senate Democrats to add to their coalition by compromising on the nuclear energy issue. House Democrats won't have it. That is also why it’s especially worth noting where there is close agreement between elements of the 2 chambers’ bills as they move forward.

Going forward, it will be important for Senators to remember that all across party and regional lines, the public wants a strong RES. (click to enlarge)

QUOTES
- Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Chair, Energy and Natural Resources Committee: "The renewable electricity standard would put us on the track to becoming less dependent on greenhouse gas-emitting resources. It would also move us in the direction of being more secure as to price and supply, as well as less dependent for foreign sources…"
- Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Ala): "I don't think this makes sense. In the Southeast, this will be a disproportionate cost to us…"
- Senator Bob Corker (R-Tenn): "[Strong legislation is going to have to offend every single one of us…I may be willing on the floor to support energy legislation that I don't think makes very much sense in the hopes it includes other things that I do think make a lot of sense,"

From americanwindenergy via YouTube.

- Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.): "Despite the chairman's best efforts the [renewable electricity] standard we markup today is woefully inadequate…We are way behind where the American people are. The only reason to support this is to take it to the floor to do something far more significant…"
- Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Ranking Member, Energy and Natural Resources Committee: "I believe very strongly in emission-free nuclear power has simply got to be part of the equation…If the goal is to reduce emissions, why we would not include nuclear, why we would not count that ... is just beyond me…"
- Senator James Risch (R-Idaho): "We ought to be looking at the global picture…We are really picking at the edges. We will not meet energy needs of the American consumer. We need to be concentrating on nuclear."