A request from Interfaith Power and Light

For the first time in many years, Congress is close to passing an energy bill with significant provisions to curb greenhouse gases.
In June, the Senate passed a bill significantly increasing the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards for automobiles – 35 mpg by 2020.
In August, the House passed a bill requiring electric utilities to obtain more power from clean, renewable sources—such as the wind and sun.
Now, the two versions of the Energy Bill must be reconciled and passed in both houses of Congress.
Unfortunately, the auto and oil industry are mobilizing their lobbyists in an attempt to keep these two critical provisions out of the final legislation.
You can tell your senators and representatives that America’s new Energy Bill must include a 35 mile per gallon fuel economy standard and a 15 per cent renewable electricity standard —anything less is unacceptable.
Click here for more information and/or to take action
It takes three minutes (or less) to help us send a strong message that a strong Energy Bill is a priority for the faith community.
Interfaith Power and Light is a religious response to global warming with chapters in 25 states and Greater Washington, D.C. Find a link to your local chapter at http://www.theregenerationproject.org/State.htm
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Energy Bill Faces Uphill Battle

According to the Wall Street Journal, the push by the Democratic congress to pass a climate-savvy energy bill faces an uphill battle.

Senate Democratic leaders face two floor fights this week over their energy bill, one led by auto makers that want to weaken proposed fuel efficiency standards and another pushed by the coal industry for tax incentives to make diesel fuel from coal.
Tomorrow, the Senate Finance Committee will decide another touchy issue: the cost of the tax provisions in the bill, which is intended to curb gasoline consumption and push cleaner fuels.
Committee leaders estimate the proposed package, which would extend existing tax breaks for producers of cleaner energy sources from wind-generated electricity to ethanol to diesel fuel made from chicken fat, will cost $13.7 billion over 10 years. That figure will likely rise as the bill works its way through Congress.

IREJN is Connecticut's Interfaith Power and Light. Visit us at http://www.irejn.org/.

Congressional Energy Debate

A debate over an energy bill that will probably last all year has already been termed "historic," according to US News and World Report.

Key House Democrats pledged to fight energy legislation proposed by fellow Democrat Rick Boucher while many Republicans voiced support for Boucher at a crowded energy subcommittee hearing today.
Henry Waxman, chair of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee and a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, said Boucher's discussion draft failed to solve the dual dilemmas of climate change and energy security.
"This discussion draft doesn't step up to the urgent problems facing us," Waxman said. "It blinks and then steps back."
Edward Markey, chair of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, criticized Boucher's bill for not reflecting "the spirit of what this country wants to see happen." Boucher's discussion draft contains several elements that are anathema to environmentalists. For example, it would overturn the recent Supreme Court ruling in Massachusetts v. EPA that gave the EPA the right to control greenhouse gas emissions and would prohibit states from enacting their own legislation.
"This bill is cutting the legs out from under states just as they are starting to spring forward on greenhouse gas legislation," Markey said. Boucher's proposal also would change the current renewable fuels standard to an alternative fuels standard in order to promote coal-to-liquids production, a fuel that can be used in vehicles. Boucher represents southwestern Virginia, a major coal-producing region.
Critics deride coal-to-liquids as counterproductive because of its heavy carbon content. Boucher's bill would increase corporate average fuel economy standards but not as aggressively as in a bill coauthored by Markey.
But John Shimkus and Dennis Hastert, both Republicans of Illinois, offered support for the Boucher bill. Hastert said it "levels the playing field to get alternative fuels to the market." Shimkus praised its focus on coal, noting Illinois's massive deposits of the fuel. In a sign of how electrified the energy debate has become, Markey and Shimkus agreed on one key point: that the ensuing debate—likely to last till the end of the year—will be "historic."

IREJN is Connecticut's Interfaith Power and Light. Visit us at www.irejn.org.