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Congress will address energy and high gas prices when it resumes business this week, but lawmakers are working against time as the session's end nears.A bipartisan group of 16 senators is promoting a smorgasbord of energy ideas -- from allowing oil drilling along the Southeast coast to spending $20 billion on an effort to move away from petroleum-based vehicles within 20 years.
"You know what America wants -- relief," said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who is part of the group "They want relief from a broken Congress. They want relief from radical partisanship and they want relief at the pump."
Lines have hardened recently between Republicans seeking to remove bans on coastal drilling and Democrats wanting to boost alternative fuels because of upcoming elections, said Lee Fuller, a lobbyist with the Independent Petroleum Association of America."Everybody wants to do something on energy, but they come at it from very different perspectives," Fuller said.
In a separate move, Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina has attracted 37 other Senate Republicans who want to lift a congressional moratorium on oil and gas drilling along the East and West coasts. Every year, Congress quietly enacts the moratorium, which expires Oct. 1, by placing it on spending bills, he said, but it's time to end the ban."In light of the situation our nation is in, it's irresponsible to consider any limitation on developing our own energy." DeMint said.
The drilling ban could be appended to legislation extending the government budget beyond the end of the fiscal year Sept. 30. DeMint and other Republicans would risk shutting down the federal government a month before Election Day if they were to block it.First up on the Senate's agenda will be a bill to increase oversight of energy trading markets by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to try to prevent companies from engaging in excessive speculation.
That legislation could be expanded to other far-reaching energy proposals, said Bill Wicker, spokesman for the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.Senate Democrats also have planned an energy summit for September in Washington to find areas of agreement between the parties.In the House, the Democratic leadership has its own plan to boost alternative forms of energy, require oil companies to pay royalties for drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and open up some coastal areas to drilling, but no vote has been scheduled."Addressing our nation's energy imperatives will be the subject of great rhetoric and rancor, but likely -- and unfortunately for the American people -- not action," said Kateri Callahan, president of the Alliance to Save Energy.
Texas oilman and billionaire T. Boone Pickens jumped into the energy debate this year and said the U.S. has become too dependent on foreign oil. Pickens, who plans to build a huge wind farm in Texas, is running TV ads touting his plan to use more renewable energy to ultimately replace imported oil."I say drill, drill, drill, but the debate misses the point," Pickens says. "Either way, we'll still be dependent on foreign oil and on the way to the largest transfer of wealth in the history of mankind."
--Contact Doug Abrahms at dabrahms@gns.gannett.com
--Energy proposalsVarious proposals are floating around Congress to lower gas prices and reduce dependence on foreign oil, including:
-- Opening coastal areas on the East and West coasts and western coast of Florida to oil and natural gas drilling.
-- Providing billions in research money for new vehicles and to help U.S. carmakers retool their plants to increase production for alternative fuel vehicles.
-- Extending tax credits for wind and other renewable power projects.-- Increasing tax credits for hybrid and advanced lean-burn technology vehicles.
-- Accelerating depreciation for nuclear plants, and increasing spending on research to reduce nuclear waste
-- Creating a requirement that all states increase the use of renewable power for electricity.
-- Raising funds for nuclear recycling research to expand nuclear power.--
On the Web:
-- http://energy.senate.gov, Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
-- www.ipaa.org, Independent Petroleum Association of America.
-- www.ase.org, Alliance to Save Energy.
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