| May 18, 2010 Congress has begun introducing legislation in response to last month's oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. Also, after several delays, a comprehensive climate and energy bill was launched in the Senate. |  Climate
| - On 5/12, Sen. Kerry (D-MA) and Sen. Lieberman (I-CT) released their draft of the American Power Act. The launch of this bill jumpstarts an intensive effort to pass comprehensive climate and energy legislation in the Senate this summer, reconcile it with the American Clean Energy and Security Act (H.R. 2454) passed by the House last June, and put a final bill on the president's desk to sign into law this year. The American Power Act would reduce global warming pollution from electricity generation, industrial sources, natural gas and petroleum-based fuels by 17 percent below 2005 levels in 2020 and by 83 percent in 2050. The four major categories of pollution sources covered in the bill account for approximately 85 percent of U.S. emissions. While the bill is an important step forward, it contains provisions that must be changed, including those that would create new incentives for offshore oil drilling and weaken the regulatory process for nuclear power plants.
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|  Energy
| - On 5/6, by a vote of 246-161, the House passed the Home Star Energy Retrofit Act (H.R. 5019), sponsored by Rep. Welch (D-VT). Home Star would provide rebates to homeowners who retrofit their homes with energy efficient equipment and materials. Republicans succeeded at the end of the debate in altering the bill in several ways that would make it more difficult to implement. For instance, the bill would require homeowners to apply for the rebate rather than having it provided by their contractor (the Republican motion passed because it included a provision prohibiting contractors from hiring sex offenders for work performed on Home Star retrofits). Sen. Bingaman (D-NM) introduced similar legislation (S. 3177) in the Senate in March. Sen. Bingaman, who chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, has said the committee will take up the bill, but it has not yet scheduled a markup.
- On 5/13, the House failed to pass the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act (H.R.5116), sponsored by Rep. Gordon (D-TN). The bill, which NRDC has endorsed, would authorize energy research and development and bolster manufacturing through both research and loan guarantee programs. House Democrats withdrew the otherwise non-controversial bill after the House adopted a Republican motion cutting the measure's spending authorization below the levels that were already reduced in committee. The Republican motion included language cracking down on federal employees who view pornography on the job, making it harder for Democrats to oppose, and denying funding to colleges that ban military recruiters from campus.
| |  Oil Drilling
| - In response to the Gulf Coast oil spill disaster, legislators have begun to introduce bills dealing with the spill and with offshore oil drilling more generally. These include:
- the West Coast Ocean Protection Act (H.R. 5213), introduced by Rep. Garamendi (D-CA), to permanently ban offshore drilling off the coasts of California, Oregon and Washington; the six senators from the Pacific coast introduced a similar bill on 5/13 (S. 3358)
- the No New Drilling Act (H.R. 5248), introduced by Rep. Pallone (D-NJ), to prevent the leasing of any area of the outer continental shelf for the exploration, development or production of oil and gas
- S. 783, introduced by Sen. Menendez (D-NJ), to prevent offshore drilling in the mid-Atlantic and north Atlantic regions
- H.R. 5241, introduced by Rep. Capps (D-CA), which would establish an independent commission that would report on the causes and implications of the gulf spill and would recommend improvements in offshore drilling policy; Sen. Whitehouse (D-RI) has introduced a similar measure in the Senate (S. 3344)
- S. 3305, introduced by Sen. Menendez, which would raise the highest amount of clean-up costs that an oil company would have to pay after a spill from $75 million to $10 billion
- S. 3346, introduced by Sen. Whitehouse, to increase civil and criminal penalties under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act.
- In addition, on 5/13 the Senate Appropriations Committee approved approximately $68 million for disaster response as part of a supplemental spending bill (H.R. 4899). The amount is $50 million below the level requested by the White House. Of the $68 million, $29 million is for the Interior Department to conduct additional inspections and enforcement of offshore drilling rigs and another $2 million for the Food and Drug Administration to monitor and inspect seafood from areas affected by the spill.
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