2.) Bonn/Climate: The International Institute for Sustainable Development is providing a daily 2000-word summary of the meetings of the subsidiary bodies to the Framework Convention on Climate Change, being held in Bonn from June 2 - June 12. The Internet site is located at:
MISCELLANEOUS
1.) Waste Bill Victory: On June 2, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-MS) tried to invoke cloture and allow the Senate to vote on S.104 (the Nuclear Waste Policy Act). However, the 56-39 vote was shy of the 60 votes needed to cut off a promised filibuster by Nevada Senators Harry Reid (D) and Richard Bryan (D). After the vote, Senate Energy Committee chairman Frank Murkowski (R-AK) reportedly told Sen. Reid that he would not bring the bill up again this Congress. In the House, Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) released a statement saying that he does not expect the House to vote again on the bill this Congress. Gingrich's decision was apparently prompted by a desire to help Rep. John Ensign (R-NV) in his Senate race against Reid.
2.) Allard/Caucus: Senator Wayne Allard (R-CO) has volunteered to chair the Senate Renewables & Efficiency Caucus; earlier, the Caucus was existing without any one Senator chairing it.
FEDERAL ENERGY BUDGET & TAXES
1.) Budget Surplus: On May 27, President Clinton announced that the federal budget will rebound from three decades of deficits and show a record $39 billion surplus for FY'98. The surplus, the first since 1969, is the largest dollar surplus in U.S. history and the largest surplus as a share of the economy in more than 40 years. It is uncertain (and perhaps unlikely) whether this surplus will benefit the federal sustainable energy program budgets.
2.) Energy & Water Appropriations: It appears that the House is looking at level funding for DOE's renewable energy programs, at best, between the FY'98 and FY'99 appropriations which would be about 30% below the Administration's request. House mark-up is expected on June 10.
3.) Interior Appropriations: According to members of the House Appropriations Interior Subcommittee staff, the subcommittee received its 302b allocation on May 22 and got $200 million more than last year, but they have none of the flexibility they had last year like rescinding Clean Coal funds and selling Strategic Petroleum Reserve oil. As a result, the overall impact is an effective budget cut. The staff advised to look for no increases, level funding at best, with cuts in softer programs. The Department of Energy's energy efficiency program is likely to receive the brunt of this. House mark-up is expected on June 16.
4.) Wind/Biomass Tax Credit: The American Wind Energy Association reports that legislation (H.R. 1401) to extend the current wind and biomass production tax credit by five years (through July 1, 2004) is now being co-sponsored by 57 members of the House of Representatives (21 Republicans, 36 Democrats), including a majority (20 or 39 members) of the House Ways & Means Committee. The comparable Senate bill (S.1459) is being sponsored by 13 members of the Senate (3 Republicans, 10 Democrats).
ELECTRIC UTILITY RESTRUCTURING
1.) Utility Restructuring: The May 18 issue of Inside Energy reports that DOE's utility restructuring legislative proposal is nearing completion. According to sources from the Administration, almost all of the federal agencies have commented on it. The only section that has yet to be written deals with the tax treatment of facilities with tax-exempt municipal bonds. A DOE official stated that Secretary Pena and Deputy Secretary Moler have been meeting with members of the House Commerce Committee to talk about the plan and to get an idea of what is happening in the Committee on the issue. Sources say, however, that there is not enough support in the committee to pass a bill that mandates retail choice by a date certain. The May 20 issue of Electric Power Alert further reports that Republican and Democratic staff on the House Commerce Committee have begun meeting to identify restructuring issues Congress will likely have to address. This, however, is viewed as progress since few efforts at developing bipartisan legislative options have been attempted thus far.
2.) California Restructuring Initiative: Californians for Affordable & Reliable Electric Service, a coalition of California's investor-owned utilities and business groups, filed a lawsuit on May 22 to stop a ballot initiative aimed at overturning parts of the state's 1996 electricity deregulation law. The suite claims that the initiative would invalidate contracts, already-sold bonds, and prompt further lawsuits. Earlier this month, Consumers Union and The Utility Reform Network announced that they had gathered over 700,000 signatures which would likely ensure a spot for the initiative on the November ballot. In a tongue-in-cheek editorial, the most recent issue of "California Energy Markets" newsletter suggested that the anti-restructuring ballot initiative appears to be favored by a seven-to-one margin; this is based on 700,000 people signing petitions to put the initiative on the ballot while only 97,000 electric customers to date have exercised their option to purchase power from any marketer they choose.
CLIMATE CHANGE
1.) G-8/Climate Change: On May 17, following the meeting of the G-8 countries, the heads of state or government of United States, United Kingdom, Japan, Germany, France, Italy, Canada, and Russia issued a final communiqué that stated: "The greatest environmental threat to our future prosperity remains climate change." The leaders pledged to each under- take domestically the steps necessary to reduce significantly greenhouse gas emissions. To supplement domestic actions, the leaders said they aim to "draw up rules and principles that will ensure an enforceable, accountable, verifiable, open, and transparent trading system and an effective compliance regime." They added that "we must ensure that the policies and operations of the World Bank and other International Financial Institutions take full account of climate change." To prepare for the next meeting this autumn of Parties to the Kyoto Protocol, the G-8 leaders agreed to "look at ways of working with all countries to increase global participation in establishing targets to limit or reduce greenhouse gas emissions." The leaders thus affirmed their intention to bring developing nations into the process of reducing their growing greenhouse gas emission as quickly as politically and technically possible.
2.) China/Kyoto: On May 29, China became the 37th country to sign the Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change. However, so far, no country has formally ratified the treaty. The treaty must be ratified by 55 countries representing 55 percent of the 1990 global carbon dioxide emissions.
3.) Livingston/Climate Change: The May 20 Congress Daily quotes House Appropriations Committee Chairman Bob Livingston (R-LA) as saying: "If they [i.e., the Administration] are trying to do through the back door what they can't do through the front, that's a clear invitation for Congress to get involved." He said appropriators are "going to stop federal funds to implement [the Kyoto treaty]."
4.) Brown-Fazio/Climate Change: A 1-page "Dear Colleague" letter was sent on May 19 to the members of the U.S. House of Representatives by Reps. George Brown (D-CA) and Vic Fazio (D-CA) noting that "we've been investing in energy efficiency and renewable energy R&D for years, and it has always paid good dividends for American businesses, our national energy security, and our environment, long before Kyoto became a hot topic. It's no 'back-door' implementation of the Kyoto protocol." The letter was accompanied by a 2-page, April 28 letter to Rep. Fazio from Office of Management & Budget Director Franklin Raines which noted that "contrary to the criticism of some, these [EE/RE] measures cannot be fairly labeled as efforts to implement the Kyoto Protocol on climate change because they independently represent 'prudent investment' that will strengthen our economy and enhance our energy independence." Let us know if you would like us to fax you a copy of either letter.
5.) Green Groups/Climate Change: A broad cross-section of the nation's major environmental organizations (i.e., "green groups) has sent a 2-page letter to the members of the Senate and House of Representatives urging their "support for increased funding of energy efficiency and renewable energy programs at the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency." The letter also urges Members not to co-sponsor bills recently introduced by Senator Ashcroft and Representative Knollenberg that are "intended to withhold funding from these programs simply because, among other things, they help reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions." Let us know if you would like us to fax you a copy.
6.) Minnesota/CO2: The May 21 Minneapolis Star Tribune reports that the Minnesota Court of Appeals has affirmed that the state's Public Utilities Commission acted appropriately and in accord with a 1993 state law when it established an economic value for carbon dioxide emissions from power plants and other sources that contribute to global warming. The values would be applied when weighing the options for new power plants, including coal, natural gas, renewable resources like wind and hydroelectric facilities, and energy conservation. More significantly, the court's opinion affirms the PUC's findings on the relationship between burning coal and global climate change. A copy of the court's decision is available on Sustainable Minnesota's Environmental Costs web page at:
MISCELLANEOUS
1.) Nuclear Waste: Public Citizen reports that Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-MS) has filed for cloture (pre-empting the expected filibuster) for S.104, the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1997 aka the Mobile Chernobyl bill. A vote on Lott's motion to limit debate on the bill is set for June 2. It will take 60 votes to bring the bill to the floor and cut off the promised filibuster by Nevada's two Democratic senators. Lott would then need 67 votes to override the expected White House veto of the bill; the Senate passed the bill last year by a vote of 65-34. Public Citizen adds that "we do not believe they have the votes yet [to override a Clinton veto], but certainly Lott and the nuclear industry are making the final push." In a related development last week, Energy Secretary Federico Pena met with representatives of the nuclear industry and offered them what would have amounted to tens of millions of dollars in Nuclear Waste Fund money to pay the utilities' costs for on-site storage since DOE did not meet its 1998 contractual deadline for a permanent high-level waste storage site; however, the utilities rejected the offer.
2.) Renewable Expo: The Third Annual Renewable Energy Expo sponsored by the Sustainable Energy Coalition, in cooperation with the members of the House Renewable Energy Caucus, on May 21, attracted more than 2,750 attendees. That is nearly double the number of participants (1,400) at last year's Expo and more than four times the number (600) at the first Expo in 1996. Approximately two dozen Members of the U.S. House of Representatives attended to view the exhibits by 55 businesses, government agencies, and trade associations. The Expo was opened by DOE Secretary Federico Pena, Reps. Dan Schaefer (R-CO) and David Minge (D-MN), Senator Wayne Allard (R-CO), and DOE Assistant Secretary Dan Reicher.
June, 1 1998
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