House Energy Bill

The House energy bill recently passed 249-183, and affects virtually every aspect of the economy, so it seems worth discussing its potential impacts. Summary articles from the LA Times and the NY Times are here and here. Plus, I am heartened to see that President Bush, in response to my blog entry yesterday, addressed the topic of rising energy prices, and will be holding a press conference tonight.

[Sure I'm joking, but I find it occasionally preposterous that I am writing about what's on his mind. Maybe because he's the most powerful man in the world. Sigh. Anyway.]

The energy bill, the Energy Policy Act of 2005, is supposed to be virtually the same bill as the one passed by the House in 2003, and which died in the Senate. For some reason, I was feeling very inquisitive yesterday, and decided to go to the sources. When I read the text of the remarks by the White House press secretary Scott McClellan, I noticed that he actually mentioned energy efficiency and renewable sources:

And the President, in his remarks, will highlight four essential steps that have really formed the foundation of his comprehensive plan to promote greater energy independence. We need to use new technology to increase domestic production, to create new sources of energy, to expand conservation and energy efficiency, and to work with other nations to make sure they are taking advantage of new technology to reduce their own demand.

Imagine my surprise! I couldn't quite tell what exactly he was spinning with this bold statement, so instead of automatically jumping to the conclusion that Scott McClellan is a slimy partisan hack, I decided to research exactly what these energy efficiency measures are, and how do they stack up?

Through the magic of the Internet, and the Thomas database, one can go to the energy bill text itself, aka H.R.6EH, including links to the Congressional Budget Office cost estimates for the energy bill (H.R. 1640). I quickly realized, however, that the 1,037-page bill is unfathomable and that the 26-page CBO analysis is merely impenetrable, if only because the line items never tell the whole story.

I did ask a good friend of mine, an energy analyst in DC, where to look for analyses, and he wrote:

as for the house bill, i don't think there's actually very much substantive on renewables in there... can't say too much about the house bill -- apart from that it is really lame.

So. If anyone has suggestions for more detailed analyses of the current House energy bill, I would welcome some pointers.

For more of other people's opinions, Knowledge Problem contains a link to a BusinessWeek summary of the energy bill, plus the Washington Post's editorial from April 21st. Also, here are the links for editorials from the New York Times, Boston Globe and the LA Times. The NRDC pans the bill. Even the right-wing Cato Institute, however, pans the bill.

As mentioned in previous posts, there are a number of broad, bipartisan coalitions emerging around the issue of energy independence, including SetAmericaFree; the Energy Future Coalition, which includes both former Clinton and Bush White House officials; and the National Commission on Energy Policy, which is getting some excellent attention from a range of newspapers.

In the end, though, I didn't feel so bad about my inconclusive primary research, when I remembered that Scott McClellan actually is indeed a slimy partisan hack.