Congressional Schedule The House and Senate are on track to adjourn for the year this, possibly as early as Wednesday. The House approved the "must-pass" FY 2008 omnibus appropriations bill on Monday (see details below) and the Senate is considering it today. However, the Senate is also expected to amend the bill, to add more money for the war in Iraq, so it will have to go back to the House for final approval before being sent to the President.
House Passes Omnibus Appropriations Bill
On December 17, the House approved H.R. 2764, an omnibus appropriations bill for FY 2008, which includes funding for 11 of the 13 spending bills. The Senate is expected to take action on the bill today and the President has indicated that he will sign the bill. The omnibus bill includes a 1.747% across-the-board cut in spending, with appropriations subcommittee chairmen was given discretion on how to rescind that amount in each of their jurisdictions.
Provisions in the bill of interest to NEPPA include $5 million for the Renewable Energy Production Incentive (REPI) program, with a .91% cut for all DOE programs, and $2.57 billion for the Low-Income Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), with a 1.7475% cut ($1.98 billion for the state block grant formula fund; $340 million for the contingency fund; and an additional $250 million in emergency allocation funds.)
If you wish to review the text of the bill, please click the link below.
http://www.rules.house.gov/110_fy08_omni.htm
Energy Bill Heads to the White House
On Tuesday, December 18, the House passed HR 6, the "energy independence" bill, by a vote of 314-100 and sent it to the President for signature. The Senate passed the bill on Friday (12/14) by a vote of 86-8. President Bush isexpected to sign the bill into law.
Two major U.S. policy changes in the bill include: raising fuel efficiency standards for new cars and trucks to 35 miles per gallon by 2020 and increasing the production mandate (and federal subsidies) for biofuels production to 36 billon gallons by 2022.
The final bill does not contain an energy tax title or a 15% federal renewable portfolio standard (RPS) for private utilities; however, there are several general provisions of interest to public power utilities. They include, but are not limited to:
- Increased federal support for electric transportation technology, including loan guarantees for advanced battery development for electric vehicles and grant programs for plug-in hybrid development;
- Directives to the Department of Energy (DOE) to develop appliance efficiency standards for additional appliances, including dishwashers, washing machines and dryers, refrigerators, freezers and lighting, and accelerate DOE action on new efficiency standards. It also includes improved commercial and federal building energy efficiency standards and assists consumers in improving the efficiency of their homes;
- Authorizes DOE to undertake more research and development (R&D) on commercial scale carbon storage and sequestration projects and to prepare a geologic survey of locations in the U.S. where those projects might be located;
- Reauthorizes DOE's Weatherization Assistance Program and accelerates funding for it;
- Accelerated R&D programs for solar, geothermal, marine and hydrokinetic renewable energy; and
- Increased funds for R&D of "Smart Grid" technologies and creating an advisory committee to make recommendations for implementing those technologies.
Upon House passage of the final bill, Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) said that he intends to have a vote on the RPS and energy tax package next year. Details on how he intends to advance them, however, have not been announced.
To view the bill, go to: http://www.rules.house.gov/110/text/110_houseamnd_hr6.pdf
FERC Chairman Joe Kellher's Re-nomination Tied to Jon Wellinghoff's Approval
Today (12/17), the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee held a confirmation hearing for Jon Wellinghoff to be commissioner at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). His current term does not expire until June 30, 2008, but in a surprise move late last week (12/12), the White House re-nominated Wellinhoff for a full 5-year term, which would end in 2013. It is speculated that the reason Wellinghoff, a Democratic, was re-nominated early was to pair him with the nomination of Republican Chairman Joe Kelliher, whose term expires when Congress adjourns for the year.
Kelliher's confirmation has been stalled, but now that an agreement appears to have been reached the Kelliher and Wellinghoff re-nominations are expected to be approved together by the end of this week.
Senate Passes 2007 Farm Bill
On December 14, the Senate passed, S. 2302, the "Food and Energy Security Act of 2007," (the "Farm bill"), by a vote of 79-14. There are several important sections of the bill for public power. Under Title 9 of the bill, there is language that makes public power entities eligible for grants and loans under Section 9005 "Biorefinery and Repowering Assistance" and Section 9007 "Rural Energy for America Program." Section 9007 also makes public power entities eligible for federal assistance for renewable energy and energy audit projects.
To view the Senate passed bill, go to: http://216.40.253.202/~usscanf/index.php?option=com_weblinks&task=view&catid=74&id=196
The House passed its version of the Farm bill on July 27, 2007. A House-Senate conference committee is expected to be appointed early next session, to reconcile differences between the two versions.
Feinstein Introduces Emission Allowance Market Transparency Act
On December 6, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) introduced S. 2423, the Emission Allowance Market Transparency Act of 2007, to facilitate price transparency in markets that sell emission allowances. In introducing the bill, Feinstein said that, in order to facilitate emission allocation price transparency for any pollutants (including any greenhouse gas), the legislation will take into consideration the public interest, integrity of those markets, fair competition and the full protection of consumers.
The bill gives the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) authority to promulgate key information regarding the availability and prices of emission allowances to state regulatory authorities, buyers and sellers of the allowances and the general public. Additionally, the bill would monitor trading for manipulation and fraud and enforce limits on the total number of emission credits that can be held by a single company at one time.