Dems: Energy bill fights global warming

Dems: Energy bill fights global warming

	Published : Fri, 19 Jan 2007 20:33 By : Agencies Print this Story

WASHINGTON (AFX) - Northwest Democrats are hailing a bill to promote renewable energy, calling it the first of several steps the new Democratic-controlled Congress will take to combat global warming.

The House bill, aimed at recovering billions of dollars in lost royalties from offshore drilling, was approved 264-163 Thursday. It would impose a $15 billion package of fees, taxes and royalties on oil and gas companies, with the money used to promote renewable fuels such as wind and solar energy and biomass.

Republicans said the bill would raise gas prices and punish domestic producers.

Democrats rejected that argument and pledged that Congress would aggressively take on global warming under Democratic leadership.

Rep. Dave Reichert of Washington state was the only Republican from the Pacific Northwest to support the bill, which Northwest Democrats backed unanimously.

Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., said the measure are presents a down payment on our vision for America as a nation that relies on clean, renewable sources of energy. It is one small step on a long road toward curing America's addiction to oil.'

McDermott and other Democrats said the United States cannot continue to burn fossil fuels in the 21st century as it did in the 20th century.

'Global warming is real, and our response had better begin sooner rather than later,' McDermott said.

Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., called the vote an about-face from energy policy under congressional Republicans.

'After 12 years of failure to deal meaningfully with a comprehensive energy policy, today under Democratic leadership we are starting in the right direction,' he said. 'Americans understand this will take more than 100 hours, ... but eliminating unnecessary subsidies to form a fund to support alternative energy, conservation and (combat) global warming is a terrific start.'

The energy legislation was the last of six high-priority issues that House Democrats had pledged to push through during the first 100 hours of Democratic control.

Republicans complained that the bill singled out the oil industry for punitive tax treatment.

'A strong domestic energy supply is vital to our economic and national security. Raising taxes on oil and gas manufacturing, above other manufacturing in this country, does nothing to reduce our dependence on foreign oil and will increase gas prices for American consumers,' said Rep. Cathy McMorris, R-Wash.

McMorris said she agrees with Democrats on the importance of funding renewable energy projects and believes it is time for Congress to 'take serious steps in developing new energy technology such as fuel cells, biodiesel, wind power and hybrid technology.'

The oil industry has been lobbying hard to try to block the tax and royalty provisions -- if not in the House, perhaps in the Senate.

Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., said the Senate is likely to pursue broader legislation to fix what she characterized as an oil and gas royalty program 'riddled with blatant mismanagement.'

As the House began debate on the energy measure, Interior Inspector General Earl Devaney told a Senate hearing Thursday that the department's Minerals Management Service showed 'a shockingly cavalier management approach' in dealing with an error in deep-water drilling leases for the Gulf of Mexico issued in the late 1990s. Because of the government error, the leases did not contain a trigger for royalties if prices soared -- as they have in recent years.

Devaney said the mistake was ignored for at least six years by the minerals bureau, even though the problem was known within the agency as early as 2000.

'Today's hearing proved that the more we learn about the MMS program to collect these royalties, the more problems it seems to have,' said Cantwell, a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources committee. 'The American people deserve a fair return on the natural resources they own, not more giveaways to oil companies already enjoying record profits.'