Analysis: Energy Bills Then and Now

What a difference a year makes.  Not only are Democrats poised to deliver an energy bill outstanding in its support for clean energy and greener cars, but it appears to be coming in record time compared to the previous Republican-led Congresses.  Here's a short history of recent energy bills:

107th Congress (2001-2002) Energy Bills: Partisan Deadlock
President Bush was chomping at the bit to pass an energy bill, but with control of Congress split, efforts to pass a bill ran aground.  The differences between the House and Senate bills drew a stark contrast between the priorities of the two parties.  After wrangling for two years, the Congress came to a close without agreement between the two chambers on a final bill.

The House, controlled by Republicans, incorporated most features of the dangerous, destructive, and Big Oil-friendly enegry policy proposed by President Bush.  In August 2001, the House passed a bill 240-189 that included:
-drilling in the Arctic Refuge
-$38 billion in subsidies for the energy industry and polluters, including $21 billion for the oil and gas industries alone
-billions in support for the nuclear industry, including handouts to support costly and dangerous fuel reprocessing

The Senate, controlled by Democrats, passed a bill 88-11 in April 2002.  The bill started out fairly strong, but then was watered down by a series of damaging amendments.  The 2002 LCV scorecard (.pdf) offers an excellent play-by-play.  After 7 weeks of debate and 36 roll call votes, the Senate passed a bill that included :
-A 10 percent Renewable Electricity Standard
-Creation of a new White House office on climate change
-Creation of a national greenhouse gas registry
-A tax package that was more balanced between  clean and dirty interests
-A bunch milktoast language on efficiency, CAFE, and other items
-A notable win on attempts by Stevens and others to pass Arctic drilling amendments

108th Congress (2003-2004): The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Energy Bill
With Republicans now in control of the White House and both houses of Congress, they moved to implement President Bush's destructive and anti-environmental energy agenda posthaste.   The House Republicans were particularly zealous in their efforts.  After both houses passed bills, secretive negotiations between Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM) and then Rep. Billy Tauzin (R-LA) (who incidentally now heads up the PhRMA, the lobby shop for the pharmaceuticals industry) resulted in a reprehensible conference report that was quickly passed by the House.  However, the final bill was too much for the Senate to swallow and died at the hands of a filibuster.

The House, controlled by Republicans like former Rep. Tom DeLay, sought to quickly ratify President Bush's anti-environment agenda--particularly when it came to energy issues.  They passed a bill 247-175 that, among many other bad things, included:
-$37 billion in tax breaks and subsidies for Big Carbon and the nuclear industry
-drilling in the Arctic Refuge
-allowed the Dept of Interior to exempt oil companies from paying for drilling rights on public lands
-undermined key laws, including the Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act

The Senate, now narrowly controlled by Republicans, moved to pass its own version of the Bush energy policy.  By July 2003, however, it was clear that the votes to do so did not exist and instead it simply passed the Democrat-authored 2002 bill again by a vote of 84-14.  Of course, this was a clever feint, since Sen. Domenici, then chair of the Energy Committee, plainly stated that he would rewrite the bill entirely in conference.  And rewrite it he did...

The closed-door conference negotiations produced a conference report that LCV called "among the most anti-environment pieces of legislation in recent history."  Indeed, LCV thought the bill was so bad that it chose to score it twice (.pdf). The conference report was quickly passed by the House by a vote of 246-180.  It had become so bad and pork-laden, however, that Senators, notably Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) refused to swallow it.  He called it the "No-Lobbyist-Left-Behind" bill.  A cloture motion in the Senate failed on a vote of 57-40 and the Republicans again found themselves unable to pass an energy bill.

109th Congress (2005-2006): Third Time's The Charm, or, The Very Slightly Less Terrible Energy Bill   

Having been ever so slightly chastened (including from moderates in their own party) by the attempts to overreach in the previous Congress, Republicans dialed back their energy bill slightly and finally managed to send a bill to the president's desk.  LCV called the Energy Policy Act of 2005 "the most anti-environment bill signed into law in recent memory." (.pdf)  Carl Pope said:

"America needs a safer, cleaner, and more secure energy future. Sadly, the energy bill that has emerged from the House and Senate conference committee fails on all counts. Instead of cutting America's oil dependence, boosting production of renewable energy, and lowering energy prices, this bill funnels billions of taxpayer dollars to polluting energy industries, and opens up our coastlines and wildlands to destructive oil and gas activities."

This disastrous bill has saddled America with rising oil dependence, skyrocketing energy prices, and continued inaction on global warming.  Unfortunately, the terrible nature of this bill is not reflected by the votes on final passage, 74-26 in the Senate and 275-156 in the House.

Current Congress: Clean Energy Shines Through
To briefly recap, we're on the verge of passing an energy bill that includes:
-the first increase in fuel economy standards since 1975
-a 15 percent Renewable Electricity Standard
-a massive increase in the production of homegrown biofuels
-billions for clean energy
-serious efforts on efficiency and green buildings