Energy Update: U.S. continues to fall behind

a flawed, but far reaching, energy bill passed by the House last week, in a 235 to 181 vote has met an early demise in the Senate. a procedural vote requiring 60 ayes to proceed, failed 53 to 42, as the RATpublicans rallied behind the energy companies and dimson, who has threatened another veto. brought to you by the GOP, the Gaga Over Petroleum party.

Senate Blocks Energy Bill

…Environmental groups, consumer advocates and alternative-energy companies have hailed the bill, but a broad array of opponents, including cattlemen, coal producers and multinational oil companies, are lining up to block it.

[…]

The largest source of these alternative fuels remains corn, and food producers argue that diversion of corn to fuel production is driving up feed prices for cattle, pigs and poultry. They oppose the bill because it raises their production costs and, ultimately, the price of food on the table.

“The ethanol number is definitely too high. It burns more feed and food than we would like,” said Jesse Sevcik, vice president for legislative affairs at the American Meat Institute. “The hog diet is 80 percent corn, and when corn prices double, those producers’ input costs go up pretty substantially.”

The oil industry hopes to eliminate a provision that rescinds more than $13 billion in tax breaks granted in 2004 and 2005, when Congress was in Republican hands. Democratic supporters of the bill said the oil companies could easily afford the new taxes because they were earning record profits on oil selling for more than $90 a barrel. But the oil companies said the money would come from revenue needed to develop new sources of oil and would lead to higher prices at the gasoline pump.

[…]

In the Senate, the prospects for the renewable electricity standard and the oil industry tax package are highly uncertain. Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, said the Senate could pass an energy bill without those two “millstones.”

Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, declined to predict passage, with or without the renewable energy or tax provisions.

“We’re going to try very hard,” he had said Thursday afternoon.

nyt

l’ll bet you will, harry…

it seems the prospect of increased taxes on oil companies massive profits; in reality a ‘roll-back’ of $13b in tax breaks granted in 2004 – 05 by the RATbublican rubber stamp congress, plus another $8b that would have funded R&D and implementation of alternative energy technologies; was too much of a burden. not to mention the requirement that electric utilities generate 15% of their power from wind, solar, or geothermal sources.

while far from perfect, an understatement of gargantuan proportions, the measure would have placed the country on the path to a more sustainable energy future as well as cutting emissions that contribute to global warming.

more below…

it is expected that the increased gas milage standard and more biofuel provisions will make it through in a significantly watered down bill. the previous being long overdue, and the later having far reaching consequences in other areas of the economy, specifically the diversion of crops to fuel usage [ethanol] and the impact on food supplies and costs.

setting those two issues aside, as something is better than nothing, it is unfortunate that the senate cannot get behind this measure like they did boxer’s Climate Security Act.

even the brits have come around with a major change in policy, and will be announcing that they are embarking on a major new wind power revolution:

Britain’s wind power revolution

Hutton’s dramatic policy shift signals less reliance on nuclear energy
Offshore farms could provide all UK homes with electricity within 13 years

The Independent on Sunday has learnt that, in an astonishing U-turn, the Secretary of State for Business, John Hutton, will announce that he is opening up the seas around Britain to wind farms in the biggest ever renewable energy initiative. Only weeks ago he was resisting a major expansion of renewable sources, on the grounds that it would interfere with plans to build new nuclear power stations.

[…]

Mr Hutton’s announcement, which will be made at a conference in Berlin tomorrow, will identify sites in British waters for enough wind farms to produce 25 gigawatts (GW) of electricity by 2020, in addition to the 8GW already planned – enough to meet the needs of all the country’s homes.

It means that within only eight years, Britain’s offshore wind industry will be twice the size of that of any other nation in the world.

The move will put the country well on the way to achieving a tough EU target of providing 20 per cent of the country’s energy from renewable sources by 2020. But just six weeks ago, Mr Hutton’s department, far from attempting to meet the target was trying to kill it.

[…]

independent uk