Flim-flam energy bill expected to get okay from House Republicans today

(navajo) House Republicans are at it again on the energy front. They'd be drilling in the middle of Yosemite and your living room given half a chance. Pushed by Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA), the House is expected to pass the Domestic Energy and Jobs Act, H.R. 4480, today. Republicans claim it will produce more jobs and spur more domestic oil and gas production by authorizing more leasing of public land and relaxing eco-regulations. The White House strongly opposes the bill and says it will harm national security and undermine environmental rules and the public's right to comment on decision-making about oil and gas development.

Cantor said Wednesday, "The oil and gas industry is the lifeblood of so many communities across our nation. But this President's policies have stifled the development of many of our nation's energy resources." HR 4480 would help remedy that, in his view.

That's not how the administration sees it:

H.R. 4480 also would reverse Administration oil and gas leasing reforms that have established orderly, open, efficient, and environmentally sound processes for energy development on public lands. Specifically, this bill would favor an arbitrary standard for leasing in open areas over leasing on the basis of greatest resource potential; limit the public's opportunity to engage in decisions about the use of public lands as well as protests of oil and gas leases; raise the potential for costly litigation, protests, and delays; curtail the use of public lands for other uses like hunting, fishing, and recreation; and remove the environmental safeguards that ensure sound Federal leasing decision-making by eliminating appropriate reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act. H.R. 4480

The bill would make control of ozone-producing smog subject to industry costs and uses language that might block implementation of the 2008 ozone standards signed by President George W. Bush. Which would mean the inadequate 1997 rules would remain in place. The bill would also eliminate deadlines for the Environmental Protection Agency to adopt new rules for polluting emissions from vehicle tailpipes and oil refineries.

While Republicans claim the bill will produce jobs, it could actually cost thousands of jobs in the environmental sector as work that otherwise would be done would not be because of the relaxed or delayed rules.

The bill would also require that more public land be opened to oil and gas leases every time the president releases oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Democrats on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce interpret the bill's language to mean that for every percentage of the SPR that is released in a time of emergency, say a natural disaster or because of international circumstances, an equal percentage of the nation's 2.4 billion acres of federal land would have to be put on the leasing block. In 2005, President Bush released 30 million barrels in response to Hurricane Katrina. That amounted to about 4 percent of the SPR total. HR 4480 would require that a similar release means opening 96 million acres of public land to drilling.

The petroleum industry's Republican-mediated cry for additional leases comes at a time there are more drilling rigs operating in the United States than the rest of the world combined, yet the majority of already leased land, on-shore and off, is idle. That is, it is not producing or being explored or developed, according to the Department of Interior. All told, that's 26 million leased acres off-shore that are idle (72 percent of total leased land) and 20.7 million leased acres that are idle on-shore (56 percent of the total).

The House could be doing something for much-needed clean energy instead by renewing the production tax credit, an incentive to investment in wind, solar and geothermal operations.

The credit has had a major impact in getting renewable projects built, especially wind projects. But it expires at the end of this year, which is already having a negative impact on wind projects not already in the pipeline.

A wind farm typically takes 18 months to complete, so investors shy away from those for which the tax credit may not be available. Which means potential jobs are already being lost as a consequence of Republican unwillingness to give the administration anything that looks like a legislative victory this election year. Ironically, even Repubican operative Karl Rove believes the PTC should be renewed.

But when the House majority is brimful of people who view global warming as a hoax and seem to think the only subsidies worth doing should be for fossil fuels and nuclear power plants, getting anything to do with clean energy passed has two strikes against it before stepping up to the plate.