U.S. House shifts $16 bln toward renewable energy
By Chris BaltimoreSat Aug 4, 9:29 PM ET
The U.S. House of Representatives on Saturday passed a Democratic rewrite of U.S. energy policy that strips $16 billion in tax incentives away from Big Oil and puts it toward renewable energy sources like wind and solar power.
The 786-page bill, passed in a rare Saturday vote, was a top priority for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and is an amalgam of bills assembled by about a dozen of the chamber's committees in recent months.
Republicans called it a "no-energy bill" because it lacks new drilling incentives, and they derided the new emphasis on renewables as "green pork." The White House threatened to veto the bill on concerns that it could boost energy prices.
House Republican leader John Boehner said the bill "cuts the lifeblood of our economy off at the knees by increasing taxes to pay for green pork projects," referring to billions of dollars of "energy conservation bonds" that would finance renewable projects.
The bill, the New Direction for Energy Independence, National Security, and Consumer Protection Act and the related tax title would spur a massive redistribution of federal incentives to wind, solar, geothermal and away from producing energy from oil, natural gas and coal.
"It's an historic turn away from a fossil fuel agenda and toward a renewable energy agenda for America," said Rep. Ed Markey, Massachusetts Democrat. "It has been a long time coming."
The bill sets new standards for appliances and building efficiency codes, and spurs possible renegotiation of faulty Gulf of Mexico drilling leases signed by the Clinton administration that left about $2 billion on the table.
