Budget Resolutions:Energy Priorities:
ENERGY POLICY: Senators use budget resolution to take another stab at energy priorities (03/13/2008)
Alex Kaplun, E&ENews PM reporter
The Senate today slogged its way through a series of votes on amendments to the fiscal 2009 budget resolution as lawmakers used the opportunity to attempt to jump-start long-stalled legislation in the energy arena.
Just before noon, the chamber launched the annual "vote-a-rama," expected to stretch into the evening, on what are expected to be dozens of amendments to the budget.
The Senate rejected, 47-51, an amendment from Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) that would have lifted the moratorium on offshore oil and natural gas drilling and would have allowed for the development of oil shale deposits in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming. The amendment also would have established an energy efficiency reserve fund for helping consumers replace old, wood-burning stoves, installation of smart electricity meters and encouraging development of carbon capture technologies.
Moments before rejecting the Alexander amendment, the Senate approved, 56-43, an amendment from Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) that contained a similar energy efficiency reserve fund but lacked the provisions about offshore drilling or oil shale development.
The Senate also approved today by a voice vote an amendment from Alexander and Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) that would add $600 million to the budget for science research, with the money going to the National Science Foundation and the Energy Department's Office of Science.
The amendment brings funding for the National Science Foundation to $6.9 billion and for DOE's office of science to $4.7 billion -- totals that the sponsors of the bill say will allow federal spending to keep pace with the goals laid out in the America COMPETES Act of 2007.
Also on tap today could be a pair of efforts by lawmakers to levy additional taxes on oil companies.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) has offered an amendment that calls for the repeal of some tax incentives for oil and gas companies and for using those dollars to establish a $500 tax credit to help individuals transition to clean-burning wood stoves as well for the creation a tax credit for cellulosic ethanol production and for the purchase of plug-in hybrids.
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) also introduced legislation today that would levy a temporary windfall profit tax for oil companies -- which would only be on the books in 2008 and 2009 -- and would direct the funds into the Highway Trust Fund to be used for transportation infrastructure projects. The bill may be offered as an amendment to the budget resolution.
Later today, the Senate will vote on an amendment from Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio) to increase funding to the Clean Water State Revolving Fund by $477 million, bringing it to a total of $1.35 billion.
And the Senate must still deal with an amendment from Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) that would place a one-year moratorium on earmarks. The Senate amendment has seemingly gained more attention because it is cosponsored by the Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and has more recently picked up the support of both Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.). But Senate Democratic leaders and appropriators on both sides of the aisle continue to oppose the measure.