Watched PBS-Frontline program called HEAT which is a 2 hour documentary dealing with the troubling facts of difficulty in implementing any meaningful CO2 lowering measures.. with the knowledge that climate change is physically evident to all beings, and now that the damage appears to be increasing faster than predicted.
Well, it was mostly business as usual this past week on Capitol Hill. The US Senate voted down a national energy bill which was said to be a comprehensive approach to reducing carbon emissions. The bill included requirements for utilities to produce 15% of their electricity from renewable sources by 2020 and provided $21B in tax incentives for the production of clean energy (production tax credit, or PTC) . Both the two-year extension of the PTC and the small wind credit fell one vote short of the 60 needed to avoid a filibuster. Those wind credits, the solar investment credit and most federal renewable energy tax credits are set to expire in 2008. The bill buckled under pressure from Republican minority leader, Senator Mitch McConnell, who threatened to filibuster the bill due to it’s repeal of $13B in oil company tax breaks.
After negotiation, a revised bill was passed in which a $13B tax increase on oil companies and the requirement for utilities nationwide to produce 15% of their electricity from renewable sources, was left out of the bill.
Freedom Fuels takes an in-depth, solution orientated look at renewable fuel sources, such as biodiesel, ethanol and vegetable oil. It explores the petroleum industry’s suppression of alternative fuels and examines the potential positive and negative impacts of biofuels.
Download the free full version at Mofilms.org
(Running time: 50 min, File size: 196.05 MB)
There was a very interesting article on PBS’s NOW website called Big Oil, Big Influence, that is worthy of a read. Not like folks don’t already know how the oil lobby has influenced Washington over the last seven years, but it also speaks of how the Democratic Congress is finally attempting to grow some ‘nads after a year as a majority.
Previously, “With members of Congress paying special attention to Big Oil, the policy that elected representatives have developed does not reflect the interest of the public, which wants “affordable, reliable, clean sources of energy,” Tyson Slocum, director of Public Citizen’s Energy Program, says. A 2006 survey by the Pew Research Center found a majority of Americans across the political spectrum want an energy policy that emphasizes renewable and alternative sources of energy.”
But now, “The oil and gas industry is finding that it’s getting less for its money on Capitol Hill. Other industries with competing interests and far less cash to spread around, such as environmental groups and alternative energy producers, are now finding more support for their legislative goals. For example, the Clean Energy Act of 2007 seeks to repeal the 2004 and 2005 tax breaks to Big Oil and re-direct the money to renewable energy efforts.” So far Congress has been slow to push through comprehensive energy legislation, in part because issues related to renewable energy standards and fuel efficiency standards differ by region, rather than political party, which means not all democrats are on board.
“As Congress wrestles with the comprehensive energy legislation, the oil and gas industry is not only fighting off repeals of its tax breaks, but is pushing again for increased domestic production of energy, specifically permission to drill in certain coastal areas that have been off limits. The companies are also trying to prevent democrats from prosecuting them for jacking up prices excessively and they publicly oppose the bill’s mandated use of alternative fuels. The industry joined the fight for coal-to-liquid fuel, in which oil companies have investments, but the controversial provision to encourage creating diesel fuel from domestic coal has already been eliminated from both the house and senate’s versions of the bill.” The best Big Oil can do right now is slow down the legislation, Marchant Wentworth of the Union of Concerned Scientists says. “The [legislation] is being held up because the oil and gas industry is concerned about closing loopholes for offshore drilling,” he says. “They’re fighting this tooth and nail. This is slowing down the clean energy solutions that the public wants.”
“Environmentalists, who had very little influence in Congress when Republicans were in control, are now seeing the lawmakers seriously consider their positions. This includes environmentalists’ support of fuel efficiency standards, a mandate for electric utility companies to produce 15 percent of electricity from renewable sources and their opposition to coal-to-liquid fuel development.”
“The Democratic Congress has made clean energy legislation a priority because of rising gas prices and concerns about the nation’s dependence on foreign oil sources, in addition to a scientific consensus that human activity is the root cause of today’s global warming. Many Republicans, too, are on board and looking for solutions. “The single most important thing that’s happened in the last five years is the price of oil has shot up,” Stanford’s David Victor says. “That run-up has changed the politics and incentives for people to take an interest in conservation, and that’s completely bipartisan.”
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above 3 from becauseaction network
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