House’s energy bill stalls in the Senate
WASHINGTON – Democratic leaders in the Senate are planning a vote on a retooled energy bill late next week after they failed to muster enough support Friday to prevent a filibuster of ambitious legislation passed by the House on Thursday.
A new version of the bill will probably scale back some elements of the House’s tax package and jettison a requirement that electric utilities use renewable energy for 15 percent of their power generation, but a White House veto threat citing a broad range of objections continued to cast uncertainty over the ultimate fate of the proposed legislation.
The Senate voted 53 to 42 Friday to close debate, falling short of the 60 votes needed to permit a vote on passage even though four Democratic presidential candidates rushed back from the campaign trail to bolster the measure’s chances. All but three of the senators who blocked a vote on the bill were Republicans; five Republicans joined with Democrats in favor of closing debate.
The failure to close debate was a victory for the major oil companies, Southeastern utilities and coal-mining firms that had opposed the legislation. But amid growing public concern about climate change and with oil prices hovering around $90 a barrel, there was still widespread support among lawmakers for an ambitious energy bill with higher automobile fuel-efficiency standards as the centerpiece.
“We have to figure out how to pass a bill in the Senate that will accomplish the same general objectives the House is trying to accomplish,” said Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M.
On Thursday, the House had brushed aside a veto threat from the White House and approved an energy bill that would raise vehicle mileage standards for the first time in 32 years, set a quota of 36 billion gallons a year for the use of ethanol and other biofuels, and require increased use of renewable energy sources to generate electricity. The bill would also raise $21 billion in revenue over 10 years, largely through ending tax breaks for the nation’s biggest oil companies, while extending tax incentives for wind, solar and other renewable energy sources.
Anticipating the Senate vote early Friday morning, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., conceded that the final deal would have to drop the renewable-energy quotas, but he said a stripped-down version of the House legislation “is still a good bill.”
House Democratic leaders were criticized even by some members of their own party for including measures that were likely to doom the package in the Senate. But Hoyer defended the strategy, saying it is not the House’s job to simply bow to the demands of the White House and Senate Republicans.
“If you shoot low, you hit low,” Hoyer said.