Portland Press Herald
Saturday November 15, 2003
WASHINGTON — Congressional negotiators announced a
compromise Friday on a national energy policy, with a goal of sending it to
President Bush by the end of next week. But the Republican deal ignores
priorities of Maine lawmakers to increase veh icle mileage, boost renewable
energy and fight groundwater pollution. The legislation has been one of Bush's
top domestic priorities, and Vice President Dick Cheney personally intervened
last week to resolve disputes about tax policy. Advocates said the bill would
create hundreds of thousands of jobs while spurring development of oil, coal,
nuclear power and a natural-gas pipeline from Alaska to Chicago.
"This is, in essence, a jobs bill," said Rep. Billy Tauzin,
R-La., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
But the bill fails to require higher mileage for sport-utility
vehicles, as Maine lawmakers sought. It protects gasoline manufacturers from
lawsuits over groundwater pollution from the additive MTBE, a problem that a
Maine scientist first documented in 1 986. And provisions dealing with
renewable energy fail to require that 10 percent of all power comes from
sources such as wood burning or wind power, as Maine lawmakers - and a majority
of the Senate - sought.
"I was hoping to hear indications that the Energy Committee
would report out a balanced energy bill that would increase supply, decrease
demand, reduce our reliance on foreign fuels and protect our environment," said
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine. "Unfortu nately, I have little hope that such a
bill will be forthcoming."
A spokesman for Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, declined comment
until after she has a chance to review the text of the bill, which is to be
posted today on congressional Web sites.
"Clearly in a bill of this complexity the devil is in the
details," said Ted McEnroe, a Snowe spokesman.
Rep. Tom Allen, D-Maine and a member of the Energy Committee,
criticized the bill for giving huge tax breaks to the industry while failing to
encourage conservation and renewable resources.
"The energy bill unveiled today is a great deal for Big Oil and
Big Coal, but a raw deal for consumers, taxpayers and the environment," he
said. "It is a throwback to the failed policies of the past."
Rep. Mike Michaud, D-Maine, voted against the energy bill in
the House because of concerns about billions of dollars in tax breaks and a
continuing dependence on foreign oil. But he will study the compromise before
deciding how to vote, a spokesman said.
"Clearly the congressman wants an opportunity to review it, but
he's still concerned that many of the harmful provisions that caused him to
vote against it in the first round would remain," said Peter Chandler,
Michaud's chief of staff.
Supporters of the compromise bill predicted that once lawmakers
and the public read the details, the bill would win broad support in
Congress.
A House-Senate conference committee is scheduled to meet Monday
to finalize the bill, so the House could consider it Tuesday and the Senate on
Wednesday, meaning it could be sent to Bush by Friday. Tauzin said one-third of
House Democrats supported the b ill when it was approved there, and he expected
the same broad support for the compromise.
But if Senate Democrats filibuster, as threatened, over
provisions such as MTBE, that could delay or even kill the bill, leaving its
future uncertain.
"I believe it's going to be hard to stand up and say, 'I want
to muster enough people to kill this bill,' " said Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M.
and chairman of the Senate Energy Committee.
Meanwhile, environmental groups including the U.S. Public
Interest Research Group, the Wilderness Society and the Natural Resources
Defense Council are mobilizing against the bill.
"We know that this bill will be a disaster for America," said
Anna Aurilio, PIRG's legislative director. "The dirtiest energy companies in
the country would get taxpayer handouts and get-out-of-jail-free cards."
The group Taxpayers for Common Sense also criticized the bill
for offering $58 billion in subsidies to oil, coal and nuclear industries, and
tax breaks estimated at $16 billion to $19 billion.
"This bill is simply pirate's booty for mature and profitable
energy industries," said Jill Lancelot, the group's president.
One of the most hotly contested provisions in the bill would
prevent lawsuits against gasoline manufacturers over MTBE, an additive that
reduces air pollution but that makes groundwater undrinkable when even small
amounts are spilled.
The problem is that when gas leaks from underground storage
tanks, it can taint surrounding wells, making the water smell and taste like
turpentine. But cleaning up polluted water nationwide could cost an estimated
$29 billion. The bill would phase out M TBE use in gasoline by 2015.
"We will have a ban against litigation," Domenici said.
Tauzin said only lawsuits alleging that the gasoline is
defective would be prohibited, so that arguing someone mishandled the gas or
allowed a leak would still be allowed.
But critics including Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., said judges
throw out cases involving negligence, allowing only defective-product cases to
win.
Domenici touted renewable-energy provisions in the bill, such
as requiring production of 5 billion gallons of ethanol a year and continuing a
tax break for wind power. The wind provision could be important in Maine
because proposed projects need the tax break to obtain financing.
But 53 senators, including Snowe and Collins, signed a letter
urging energy negotiators to require that 10 percent of all power be generated
from renewable sources by 2020. The current rate is about 2 percent.
Broad opposition kept a couple of provisions out of the
legislation.
One proposal would have opened Alaska's Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. Critics, including Snowe and Collins, fought
the provision ferociously, and Domenici said its inclusion would have killed
the bill.
Likewise, lawmakers including Snowe and Collins supported
conservation measures such as requiring SUVs and minivans to get the same
mileage as cars.
"I am equally disappointed with what appears to have been
excluded from the bill as with that which has been included," Collins said.
Staff Writer Bart Jansen can be contacted at 202-488-1119 or
at:
bjansen@pressherald.com
