By Debra DeHaney-Howard
October 21, 2002

As Congress returns home for mid-term elections, it is unlikely that they will pass a comprehensive energy bill (H.R. 4) this year. While House and Senate leaders had hoped to have a completed conference committee bill on the floor for passage before adjournment targeted for October 18, it is highly unlikely that this will happen before the scheduled adjournment.

The House and Senate energy conference has been slow, with staff from both houses only reconciling differences on a number of lower-profile issues, including: energy assistance programs for lower income families, clean coal technology programs, provisions to assist rural communities with energy, and pipeline safety requirements. Conferees also agreed to a provision that modestly increases fuel economy standards in sport utility vehicles and light trucks. The provision requires those vehicles starting in model year 2006 to use at least 5 billion less gallons of gasoline than the 2002 model year fleet.

Earlier this month, House and Senate conferees debated two of the more controversial issues — drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) and climate change. The Senate rejected the House compromise offer on ANWR. The House had proposed to designate as new wilderness an additional 10.2 million acres in the Refuge in exchange to drill on 2,000 acres in the Refuge.

Immediately following that defeat, conferees took up climate change. The Senate offered climate change provisions, that the House rejected by a vote of 2-15. The provision proposed to keep greenhouse gas (GHG) reporting voluntary for at least five years and include a trigger mechanism for making reporting mandatory if after five years it accounts for less than 60 percent of U. S. GHG emissions. It also proposed to establish a White House Office of Climate Change Policy.

As U.S.MAYOR goes to print, prospects for passage remains uncertain because conference committee members have been unable to resolve differences on major outstanding issues — an electricity title that would give the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) authority to approve electricity transmission, renewable portfolio standards that would require electric utilities to use 10 percent renewable energy fuels by the year 2020, a 5 billion-gallon ethanol and reformulated gasoline mandate, and tax incentives.