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Congress takes giant leap towards a New Apollo Project
December 6, 2007
With approval of a broad energy-independence package that represents a hard-fought compromise between separate energy bills passed in the two chambers of Congress this summer, the House took a big step towards making U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee’s vision for a New Apollo Project a reality. The Senate is expected to consider the historic legislation as soon as Saturday.
“Every revolution has a start,” said Inslee (D-Wash.), during a speech on the House floor today. “On May 25, 1961, President Kennedy, with full confidence in Americans’ ability to innovate, said we’re going to go to the moon in 10 years.
“Skip ahead to Dec. 6, 2007, a day we’re starting a clean-energy revolution to give Americans economic growth and technological progress.”
Approved by a margin of 235 to 181 in the House today, the Energy Independence and Security Act, H.R. 6, would repeal over $20 billion in tax subsidies for Big Oil and use these funds to promote renewable energy and develop green technologies. It also included a range of major efficiency initiatives that Inslee has championed for over 5 years and featured in his comprehensive New Apollo Energy Act. They are:
*A so-called Renewable Electricity Standard (RES), which is a requirement for 15 percent of the nation’s electricity mix to come from renewable sources by 2020, just like one that voters passed in Washington last year with Initiative 937;
*The first increase in vehicle efficiency standards since 1975, namely a Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standard of 35 miles per gallon by 2020 for new cars and trucks;
*A Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) that calls for 36 billion gallons a year of homegrown biofuels at the pump by the year 2022; and,
*Improvements in efficiency, such as assistance for Americans to weatherproof their homes, requirements for more energy-efficient appliances and lighting, and standards for making new commercial and federal buildings green.
As a member of the House Energy and Commerce and the House Natural Resources committees, two panels with jurisdiction over the energy package, Inslee pushed for inclusion of the aforementioned policies in the final legislation and he can be credited with helping secure several other narrower provisions that were approved today:
*A program that authorizes $90 million per year through 2013 for projects that encourage the use of plug-in electric hybrid vehicles or other emerging electric vehicle technologies;
*A $3,000 federal tax credit per plug-in hybrid, with up to a $2000 tax credit for electric vehicles with additional battery capacity;
*A program that authorizes $50 million per year through 2012 for research to develop technologies to harness renewable energy in waves, tides and river currents, and to evaluate the environmental impacts of such technologies;
*The extension of production tax credits to technologies that produce electricity by harnessing waves, tides and river currents; and,
*An expansion of the 10 percent investment tax credit to facilities up to 50 megawatts in size that utilize cogeneration, which means they simultaneously generate electricity and produce heat.
The only provision Inslee won this August in the House version of the energy bill that was not included in the final package was a request to study the potential of saving energy by using power-management software in personal computers and monitors.
“I’ve never seen such a dramatic shift on an issue in such a short time,” added Inslee. “When I first introduced my New Apollo Energy Act in 2005, many thought it was an optimist gesture, but a pie in the sky nonetheless.
“Two years later, we saw unprecedented melting of the Arctic and unprecedented melting of resistance to policies that address global warming.
“And today, we’re seeing cornerstone policies of my comprehensive clean-energy plan win approval in Congress. It’s a giant leap towards establishing a New Apollo Project that relies on the creative genius of American innovators and entrepreneurs to spur a green revolution that will create millions of jobs, reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and improve national security.”
After Senate passage, the legislation would need the president’s signature to become law. Earlier today, the White House threatened to veto the bill.
The House and Senate are expected to focus on crafting global-warming legislation next year. House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John D. Dingell (D-Mich.) and his Subcommittee on Energy and Air Quality Chairman Rick Boucher(D-Va.) have released the first in a series of white papers to outline their climate change policy positions.
On Wednesday, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee took an initial step on climate-change legislation by approving a bipartisan bill that would set a mandatory cap on carbon-dioxide emissions and create a national trading system in which polluters could buy or sell credits to emit greenhouse gases.