what's up

With gas prices surging and clean energy all the rage, energy policy is a perennial target in Congress.

In 2007 lawmakers passed a bill to hike up gas mileage standards, give an extra boost to ethanol production and phase in other efficiency standards. This year Congress has batted around a number of bills to make a dent in prices at the pump, but political grandstanding during an election year has so far doomed any bill from becoming law.

green tax incentives

The Senate blocked a measure last year that would extend and expand incentives for green energy; the sticking point being that it would've been paid for by rollbacks on tax breaks for big oil.

The House passed a similar bill in February '08 - with the same deal-killer of oil tax hikes. Below is a snapshot of what's in the bill.

Tax credit would include:

• $6.5 billion to extend tax credits for wind and other renewables for three years;
• $1 billion for those who buy plug-in hybrids;
• $1.5 billion in credits for energy efficient homes;
• $2 billion for green community programs;
• $2 billion for transportation projects in New York.

They'd be paid for by:

• $13.5 billion (over 10 years) in rollbacks on tax credits for big oil;
• $4 billion by switching up how oil companies can claim foreign tax credits.

The Senate is trying out the idea of passing a bill that'd raise green energy tax perks without any accompanying tax hikes for big oil. It's unclear if the House would be willing to back them up.

Strategic Petroleum Reserve

There was one energy issue Dems and Republicans easily agreed on - and which the president knew he couldn't resist - and that was stopping oil from being pumped into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve which, like its name suggests, is a back-up supply of oil to be used in cases of emergency. The government was adding oil to the reserve, but while Congress was handily passing a law in May '08 telling it to cease and desist, the president declared he would stop the flow himself. (WP)

House Dems also tried to force the administration to skim off some oil from the reserve, but that effort failed in July (NYT).

a mixed salad of gas measures

With the onset of spring - which always brings an upswing in gas prices - Congressional leaders started to consider other small-time measures designed to nudge gas prices down (WP), including:

• taxes on oil companies - not so much to help prices, but rather to take the sting out of the fact that the oil companies are raking in profits (A Senate bill failed to pass in June - WP)
• making price gouging a federal crime
• letting the US sue OPEC for playing around with prices
• tightening regulatory reins on the oil futures market, which some blame in part for inflating gas prices (The House passed one bill, HR 6377, but may vote on other versions. A Senate bill, S 3268, got derailed in July.)
• forcing companies to "use or lose" federal land leases they already have for drilling oil (A House version, HR 6251 , failed to pass a couple of times.)
• beefing up support for public transportation (passed in the House - HR 6052)

Republican leaders have also responded with their own set of measures to ease gas prices - particularly opening up more drilling off-shore and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge - but their efforts were voted down in the Senate in May and continue to be rebuffed in the House. (NYT & WP) The Interior Department estimates that if the offshore drilling ban was lifted, we'd find 18 billion barrels of oil and 76 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. See our ANWR page for estimates there.

See our Gas Prices primer for more on the debate on how to bring down prices.

compromise in the air?

The House returned from August break with plans to vote on off-shore measures. There's been talk of combining an off shore bill with a host of other green measures including tax breaks and funding for alternative energy and a mandate that green energy make up a percentage of electricity production. The cost of a bill would be picked up by taxes on oil.

House members look like they might vote on a stand-alone drilling measure the week of September 15. Drilling would be okayed up to 50 miles away from shore - off of states that sign on. But with no revenue share promised for states, the bill could be a nonstarter for GOP members.

Senate leaders are also working on an energy package that could include off-shore drilling. More promisingly - or at least genuinely, a "group of 10" (growing to 20) moderates in the Senate started fashioning a bipartisan bill in July to combine GOP and Dem energy initiatives. (WP)

taking the heat for the needy

The Senate has also floated the idea of a bill to help low-income Americans pay for enery costs. CJ hasn't come across anything more specific than that.

Updated Sept 15, 2008