Alex Kaplun reports for E&E News:
Top House Democrats say that shortly after Congress reconvenes, they will put on the floor a piece of legislation that will include an expansion of offshore drilling but also a renewable electricity mandate, energy-efficiency standards for buildings and oil industry tax provisions.
Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) described the plan as “a political reverse takedown on the Republicans,” by calling the GOP bluff on their calls for an “All of the Above” energy agenda. David Sandalow, an adviser to Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), told E&E News: “We’ll see whether the proponents of all of the above can take yes for an answer.”
Renewable electricity standards, building efficiency standards, and oil tax provisions have repeatedly passed the House over Republican opposition, but have died in Republican filibusters in the Senate.
The legislative plan will represent a compromise from the agendas of the various national lobbying campaigns by outside organizations:
- Al Gore’s We Campaign’s call for a 100% renewable electricity standard by 2018;
- Newt Gingrich’s American Solutions For Winning the Future’s call for expanded drilling;
- T. Boone Pickens’ call for new grid development, tax incentives for wind and solar, and subsidies for natural gas;
- The coal industry’s American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity’s call for increased advanced coal technology subsidies.
ACCCE and Pickens each have had a significant presence at the national conventions.
On a lighter note, as Open Left’s Matt Stoller found, the people employed by ACCCE to spread the “clean coal” message in Denver weren’t necessarily all up to speed.