Senate bill shifts U.S. fuel policy

Renewable electricity and environmental protections left out for now

In late June, the U.S. Senate passed an energy bill that includes two significant changes to the United States’ use of transportation fuel – a major increase in biofuels production, and an increase automobile fuel efficiency standards.

The Senate passed the bill quickly just before midnight on June 21 so that the auto manufacturers and their Senate supporters would not have the time to undermine an agreement to require American cars and trucks to average 35 miles per gallon by 2020. However, the Senate did not include important provisions to spur the use of renewable electricity and ensure that our land and water are protected as biofuels production increases.

Renewable electricity blocked

Legislation to institute a federal renewable electricity standard (RES) that would require utilities to produce 15 percent of their electricity from clean, renewable sources such as wind, solar and biomass by 2022 is stuck in the Senate. Senators voted down a sham RES amendment that would allow utilities’ nuclear, coal and other non-renewable energy sources to meet the 15 percent goal. Senator Pete Domenici’s (R-NM) amendment was defeated 56-39. A handful of Senators then used a parliamentary maneuver to block a vote on the “clean” RES.

“Despite majority support in the Senate, a small group of senators mugged the latest effort to pass a national renewable electricity standard,” said Marchant Wentworth, Washington representative for the Clean Energy Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists. “They didn’t take a vote, there’s no record of who actually killed the initiative, so there is no accountability to the American people - who overwhelmingly support a strong standard.”

The legislation is not dead, however. Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid (D-NV), and Energy and Natural Resources Committee chairman, Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), have committed to holding an up or down vote on the 15 percent RES soon, and the House is expected to vote on similar legislation.

Senate Votes Down Liquid Coal

The bill has no incentives for liquid coal. Two amendments for liquid coal were defeated on the floor.

The first, by Senators Pete Domenici (R-NM) and Jim Bunning (R-KY), would have mandated production of 6 billion gallons of liquid fuels from coal per year by the year 2022. The amendment did not have meaningful standards for controlling greenhouse gas emissions.
The other amendment, by Senators Jon Tester (D-MT) and Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), supported by other coal-state Democrats, would have provided $10 billion in direct loans for plants that gasify coal or biomass, but only if the lifecycle emissions of greenhouse gases were at least 20% better than comparable petroleum products.

That standard could only be met by capturing carbon dioxide at a liquid coal plant, and mixing biomass in with the coal as feedstock.

Coal-state Democrats had committed to vote against the Domenici/Bunning amendment in favor of their more restrictive proposal. Liquid coal lobbyists opposed the Tester-Bingaman proposal as too restrictive—admitting, in effect, that liquid coal can’t be a low-carbon fuel.
“We are gratified by the Senate’s action rejecting subsidies and incentives for liquid coal plants,” said WORC Responsible Energy Development Campaign Team Chair Peggy Utesch.

“Our tax dollars should be invested in the cleanest, most productive, fastest steps we can take to reduce our dependence on foreign oil—increased fuel efficiency and renewable fuels.”
The Senate votes repudiated liquid coal as a viable part of national energy strategy. Leading up to the vote, major newspapers across the country editorialized against liquid coal; even coal state papers called it a “boondoggle” or “snake oil.”

Other signs of problems for the fledgling liquid coal industry:

• House Energy and Commerce Chair John Dingell removed liquid coal incentives from his Committee’s energy bill.
  
• Senator Barack Obama, often cited as a supporter of liquid coal, said he “will not support the development of any liquid fuels unless they emit at least 20 percent less lifecycle carbon than conventional fuels.”
  
• Chinese government officials are slowing or stopping that country’s plans to make liquid coal to ease China’s dependence on foreign oil, according to news reports. China’s first liquid coal plant is costing too much, will use too much water, and will emit too much carbon dioxide, the reports said.

36 Billion Gallon Renewable Fuel Standard

The Senate voted to require that by 2022 the nation’s gas and diesel distributors will incorporate into their product at least 36 billion gallons of biofuels, mostly ethanol. The renewable fuel standard (RFS) sets a cap on conventional corn ethanol at 15 billion gallons by the year 2015, and begins to phase in an RFS for advanced biofuels, which will largely come from cellulosic ethanol, but also incorporates biodiesel, and other biomass conversion technologies.

Conservationists succeeded in mandating a study to determine the effects of biofuels production on land, air, water, and markets. Amendments to ensure that biofuels would have to make strong reductions in lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions did not make it into the bill in the Senate. WORC will continue to advocate for life-cycle greenhouse gas performance standards and sustainability in biofuels feedstock production and harvest. Since the House of Respresentatives has not yet adopted an RFS, citizens will be putting increasing pressure to strengthen environmental provisions in the House in order to carry them into a Conference Committee negotiations.

A critical concern, in addition to limiting the greenhouse gas foot print of a given biofuels technology, is to establish a definition for life-cycle that would account for, and hopefully prevent the massive ecosystem conversions that are taking place in Indonesia and Brazil, taking tropical rainforests out to put in biomass crops or palm oil plantation. A strong life-cycle definition will prevent such biofuels from being imported into the United States as part of our RFS.

The U.S. Senate also took up debate on the Renewable Fuels, Energy Efficiency, and Consumer Protection Act of 2007, a broad energy bill to promote renewable, clean, and affordable energy. The Senate passed the bill 65 to 27 (with seven not voting) after more than a week of debate. WORC and its member groups supported the bill. A “yea” vote is the correct vote (roll call vote #226).

WORC also supported amendments by Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) to strengthen the bill by adding environment and public health safeguards to the bill, including provisions that would encourage new biofuels technologies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50% over conventional petroleum fuel. This amendment passed 58 to 34 (with seven not voting). A “yea” vote is the correct vote (roll call vote #219).

Senators also staved off a proposed amendment by Sen. Pete Dominici (R-NM) that would have substituted a sham proposal allowing utilities to use dangerous and dirty power sources such as nuclear power to meet the bill’s goal of getting 15% of energy from renewable sources by 2020. A “nay” vote is the correct vote (roll call vote #211).

WORC, along with conservationists and newspaper editorial boards across the country, opposed two amendments to subsidize liquid coal, one by Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY) to set an artifical requirement that the nation produce over five billion gallons of the dirty fuel, and a second by Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) to provide subsidies in the form of half a billion dollars in loan guarantees to the already well-heeled coal industry. A “nay” vote is the correct vote on both proposals (roll call vote #213 and #214).

—Sara Kendall, John Smillie, Margie MacDonald and Aaron Browning