At Least the Turkey Knows its Fate…

So now our congresspersons are back in their home districts, presumably enjoying—in different ways—their families and their turkeys.

But unlike the turkeys, who know exactly what to expect come Thanksgiving, the 2007 Congressional energy bill was left with an uncertain fate when legislators locked their office doors last Friday night.

Friday 16th. was the day the bill, which has been struggling its way up the steps of Capitol Hill since early in the year, was to have been voted up or down. Two weeks ago it appeared that the only way Democratic leaders could get a bill out of Congress and across to Pennsylvania Avenue was to strip out all support for renewable electricity sources, leaving just CAFE standards for automobile mileage and renewable fuel standards in the husk of what was once a promising initiative. In the days that followed, however, Congressional leaders were bombarded with messages of protest from members of organizations as broad-based as moveon.org and as tightly focused as wind and solar advocacy groups. Well over 1200 calls were made by Solar Citizens!

In consequence, it appears that legislators have called a halt to the disintegration of the bill and are now working to restore a tax package to it. Nothing is certain at this point, but according to a recent report by the Stanford Group Company the likely figure for the package is $15-$16 billion in incentives over ten years. It also appears that some kind of extension of the renewable energy production tax credit sought by the wind lobby and investment tax credits for solar programs may be part of this package. Legislators do not yet appear to have drilled down to the details of how long, or at what levels, tax credits will last under the bill.

One sticking point—probably the main one for Republicans—is the funding source for subsidies to renewables. And it may be that Democrats will have to back off from their commitment to the PAYGO test (finding matching offsets for all proposed spending increases) and their wish to fund renewables from taxes collected from the oil and gas industry. Regardless of the social justice aspect of taxing fossil fuel for the sake of clean energy, the target for Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid is to secure 60 votes in the Senate to prevent a filibuster and send the bill to the White House with a bipartisan sheen on it.

We also hear that freshman Members of Congress have been applying pressure to leadership as a group. John Hall (D-NY), Paul Hodes (D-NH) and seventeen other representatives wrote a letter to Speaker Pelosi yesterday, calling for inclusion of the national renewable energy standard and fuel economy increases in the bill’s final version.

“We strongly support including these provisions in order to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, combat global warming, and create a stronger, more secure economy,” ran the letter.

A parenthetical note: Congress is not officially “in recess” at all. In order to prevent President Bush from making controversial appointments in their absence, congresspersons—or, at least, one of their number who drew the short straw—will conduct “proforma” sessions every four days, during which no business will be transacted.

Capitol Hill’s Thanksgiving “recess” will give everyone time to digest, along with the stuffing, lessons from the bruising energy bill fight. It is to be hoped that, when Congress reconvenes in December for the final round, the pro-renewable senators and representatives are the ones with the wishbones.