House-Senate Conferees Complete Energy Bill

Washington, D.C. — Breaking a four-year stalemate, a House-Senate conference committee has approved the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (H.R. 6). The action clears the way for final passage this week and will satisfy President Bush's ambitious goal of completing a comprehensive energy bill this month.

"We will put before Congress the most comprehensive energy legislation in the last 30 years. This balanced bill will lower energy prices for consumers, spur our economy, create hundreds of thousands of jobs and take unprecedented steps to promote greater energy conservation and efficiency," said U.S. Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. "I agree with our president -- four years is long enough for an energy bill. This agreement turns the tide and offers support to both our economy and our national security."

"A month ago, when I pledged to get an energy bill to the president by August, I spoke more from hope than conviction," said U.S. Senator Pete Domenici, R-N.M., chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. "But I underestimated the resolve of conferees to address our energy challenges now. I'm proud of this conference and look forward to taking this conference report back to the Senate. I congratulate Chairman Barton on a remarkable accomplishment."

As chairman of the House-Senate negotiations, Barton had pledged a fair and transparent process. "I am going to do everything I can as chairman to conduct a bipartisan, bicameral, open process that results in a very good energy bill that the majority of the conference and both parties on both sides of the Capitol can vote for," he said at the first conference meeting.

Barton delivered, and H.R. 6 is expected to easily win a bipartisan majority in both the House and the Senate, sending the bill to the White House after similar measures died in two prior legislative sessions. The conference committee met five times in sessions open to the media and the general public. In addition, the main four conferees, Barton, U.S. Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., and U.S. Sens. Domenici and Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., met 11 times altogether.

H.R. 6 represents the most sweeping energy legislation in decades. Specifically the bill:

• Addresses rising gasoline prices and our dependency on foreign oil. Encourages more domestic production of oil with incentives such as a streamlined permit process; promote a greater refining capacity to bring more oil to market; and increases the gasoline supply by stopping the proliferation of expensive regional boutique fuels. To scale back demand for oil, the proposal encourages vehicles powered by hydrogen fuel cells and increases funding for Department of Transportation work to improve fuel-efficiency standards.

• Improves our nation's electricity transmission capacity and reliability to stop future blackouts through the adoption of reliability standards, incentives for transmission grid improvements and reform of transmission authorization rules.

• Promotes clean and renewable fuels, by providing incentives for clean coal technology and renewable energies such as biomass, wind, solar and hydroelectricity.

• Requires greater energy conservation by establishing new mandatory efficiency requirements for federal buildings, and efficiency standards and product labeling for battery chargers, commercial refrigerators, freezers, unit heaters and other household products.

• Extends Daylight Saving Time by four weeks to reduce energy consumption by the equivalent of 100,000 barrels of oil for each day of the extension. Studies indicate that the proposal to adopt daylight savings time from the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November will also lower crime and traffic fatalities and allow for more recreation time and increased economic activity.

• Deters unfair foreign competition from undermining U.S. energy security. The bill delays the government's Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States (CFIUS) from reviewing sensitive international energy mergers, such as the active bid for Unocal by the Chinese National Overseas Oil Company - an entity 70 percent owned by the communist Chinese government - for 120 days to allow for a review by the Departments of Defense, Energy and Homeland Security. The assessment would examine the proposed deal's impact on U.S. energy security and whether or not an American company would be allowed to make such an acquisition in the foreign company's host country. CFIUS would also be required to wait three weeks after completion of the study before it can make recommendations to the president the international merger at issue.

• Boosts production of clean natural gas to help alleviate soaring prices for the environmentally friendly fuel. Specifically, the bill breaks the bureaucratic logjam that has stymied work on approximately 40 liquefied natural gas facilities nationwide.

• Encourages more nuclear and hydropower production by authorizing the Department of Energy to develop accelerated programs for the production and supply of electricity; setting the stage for the lengthy process of building new nuclear reactors by offering risk insurance incentives and extending Price-Anderson indemnification; and improving current procedures for hydroelectric project licensing.

SOURCE: The Committee on Energy and Commerce
Joe Barton, Chairman, U.S. House of Representatives