House Republicans are likely to bring a package of energy bills to the floor for a vote next week, turning Congress’ focus back to a topic that hasn’t been predominantly on President Obama’s lips as of late.
The Domestic Energy and Jobs Act is a package of bills — all of which passed out of committee with bipartisan support — intended to spur job growth while lowering energy costs. The package is being introduced by Rep. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.); his Strategic Energy Production Act of 2012, which would require the administration to formulate a plan for new energy leases on federal land with production output equal any oil sapped from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, is one of the seven bills included.
It was announced last week on the heels of a multi-state blitz by the GOP’s House Energy Action Team, led Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).
Here’s a video from that trip, made by McCarthy’s team, delving into the North Dakota energy boom.
* Keystone pipeline
* Double production on federal land in five years including (mostly) fracking
* $5b crash program to build thorium reactors
* open the Yucca Flats nuclear waste facility
* forbid access to strategic petroleum reserve in the absence of a declared state of war.
* continue DoD pilot programs for biofuels and coal to diesel conversion for emergency war supplies
* federal takeover of some solar pilot programs that are not feasible for private enterprise.
Some of these are good for emergency supplies and WILL cost more than conventional energy and are thus NOT ever going to work as private developments, but they do have a (small) point and they make the greens happy, and who knows, maybe we’ll figure out how to do it better.
Bipartisan committee or not, I think the Dems will find a way to shoot it down – not because it’s a bad bill, but because the Republicans are sponsoring it. Business as usual on Capitol Hill…
My prediction:
Quick passage in the House, a slow death in the Senate, followed by democrats’ complaints of obstructionism and gridlock.
Anybody want to bet against that?