9-17-08 by dugan
The 290-page energy bill that the House passed last night would be important if it had a chance of becoming law. It doesn’t. Too bad, because aside from a halfhearted acquiescence to the "Drill Now" fakeout, and $2.25 billion for chasing the chimera of clean coal, it’s a start on an energy policy that is far more than oil and corn supports.
The bill, passed without much fanfare last night, to not much media attention today, would take away the oil industry’s tax breaks, about $18 billion worth, to pay for an extension of wind and solar energy development credit that will otherwise expire at the end of the year. Public transit, energy efficiency, cellulosic ethanol all get some attention and money. So do greener building codes and zoning, a rising issue in global warming. It outlines a trading market in renewable energy credits.
There’s also a 77-page "Green Neighborhoods" section that seems dropped in from another planet, though I’ll read it in detail one of these days.
The bill now goes to the Senate, where there’s a slim chance that the extension of renewable energy credits will be plucked out and passed, since all 50 governers, all the major environmental groups and major corporate interests are united about the damage to investment in renewable energy if the federal credits are cut off. As for the rest, it’ll be fodder for both sides in the election campaign, and possibly a base for starting over next year.
Sometimes it’s no fun being a realist.