On Thursday, June 21, the Senate gave final approval to its energy bill, H.R. 6, the Creating Long-Term Energy Alternatives for the Nation Act (CLEAN), after almost two weeks of debate. Earlier that day, the Senate failed to invoke cloture (i.e. end debate and move to a final vote on the amendment) on the energy tax title that was offered as an amendment by Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT). (See summary of tax title below.) Republicans objected to the title because they believed it was unfair to the oil and gas industries. It is unclear at this time, if the energy tax title will be considered on a separate unrelated bill, or if the Senate will pass the measure on its own prior to going to conference with the House on H.R. 6. After the vote on the tax title, the Senate proceeded to a cloture vote on the underlying energy bill. After extensive behind the scenes negotiating on the contentious issue of increasing of corporate average fuel standards (CAFE) for vehicles, a deal was struck and a compromise amendment was adopted by voice vote. With this victory behind them, -- the Democratic leadership decided to move to a vote on the final bill. It was approved by a vote of 65-27.
Senate Energy and Natural Resources (ENR) Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) offered, but did not request a vote on his federal renewable portfolio standard (RPS) amendment. The Bingaman RPS would have required electric utilities to secure at least 15 percent of their power from renewable energy sources by the year 2020. The amendment would have applied to some large public power systems (i.e. with annual retail sales of more than 4 million MWH).
Bingaman had been working to secure the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster to his amendment, but was apparently unsuccessful even after, he offered to modify it to allow energy efficiency measures to count towards the RPS mandate. This modification was made at the request of Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA), but the change was apparently not enough to garner the needed votes to pass the measure in the Senate.
Despite Senate defeat of the tax title and RPS, it does not mean that a final energy bill will not include these provisions. The House bill is likely to include a tax title and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has said she would push for an RPS when its energy bill is debated on the floor.