UPDATE - Senate Democrats push US energy conservation
Date: 06-Dec-01
Country: USA
Author: Tom Doggett
"Today, we are introducing a comprehensive, balanced energy plan that will strengthen our economy, protect our environment and provide energy security for our nation for decades to come," Senate Leader Tom Daschle told reporters.
Daschle plans to have the Senate debate the legislation when lawmakers return from their holiday recess in January and hopefully vote on the measure by mid-February.
Instead of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as Republicans favor, Democrats sought a different route to boosting domestic production.
Their bill would provide funds to hire more government workers to clear a backlog of applications from energy firms that want to drill on millions of acres of federal lands and offshore waters already open to exploration.
The wildlife refuge on Alaska's northeastern coast is home to polar bears, caribou, migratory birds and other wildlife. Geologists also believe as much as 16 billion barrels of crude oil could be extracted from the area.
Democrats said oil supplies from other federal lands and from conservation would help reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil imports without despoiling the Alaskan refuge.
"While it is vital that we increase domestic production of traditional and alternative sources of energy it is also important, on the consumption side of the equation, that we stop wasting energy," said Democrat Byron Dorgan of North Dakota.
The Republican-led House of Representatives approved a broad energy package in August that would allow drilling in the Alaskan refuge and provide some $33 billion in tax breaks for oil, natural gas, coal and refining companies.
Senate Democrats plan to add $10 billion to $15 billion in tax credits and incentives to encourage energy production and energy efficiency. That provision must first be approved by the Senate Finance Committee.
NEW BILL TO FOCUS ON MILEAGE
The House bill also would reduce fuel use by gas-guzzling sport utility vehicles and minivans by 5 billion gallons from 2004 to 2010, an amount roughly equal to a two-week supply of U.S. motor fuel.
The Senate Democrats' legislation does not set specific fuel mileage requirements for vehicles. That language will be added to the bill after the Senate Commerce Committee approves a new standard, they said.
The Senate committee is due to launch that process on Thursday with a hearing on vehicle fuel efficiency. Gasoline demand accounts for more than 40 percent of U.S. petroleum use.
"Although details are forthcoming, the bill recognizes that improving fuel economy is the single most effective step that we can take to reduce our dependence on oil, save consumers money and cut global warming pollution," said the Sierra Club.
A draft of the bill circulated earlier among lawmakers included a provision, which was later pulled, that would have required the fuel efficiency of automobiles built between 2007 and 2010 be raised to 36 miles per gallon while boosting the standard for light trucks to 27.5 mpg.
The current Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards adopted by Congress in the mid-1970s after the Arab oil embargo require passenger cars to get an average 27.5 miles per gallon and light trucks to get 20.7 mpg.
To help diversify U.S. energy supplies, the Democrats propose to increase the amount of renewable fuels, including ethanol and bio-diesel, blended into gasoline. The amount would be set at 2 billion gallons per year beginning in 2003, rising to 5 billion gallons annually by 2012.
The bill also addresses the controversial fuel additive MTBE, or methyl tertiary butyl ether, which boosts the oxygen in fuels to make them burn cleaner but which pollutes underground water supplies.
The legislation would phase out MTBE in four years and allow states to opt out of a federal program requiring gasoline to have a higher oxygen content.
$10 BILLION FOR NEW ALASKA PIPELINE
Other conservation measures in the bill would require home air conditioners