Sifting through the new energy bill...

[garybeck]

It took me a while to find the new energy bill. Many articles on the passage of it, but not a one actually one I could find gave a link to the bill. Maybe they'd rather have us read their take on it, than read it ourselves?

H.R.6899
Comprehensive American Energy Security and Consumer Protection Act
http://thomas.loc.gov/home/gpoxmlc110/h6899_ih.xml


There's a lot of stuff in here and I'm now a lawyer. All I know going in is that the media prepped me to think the Dems caved in, allowing offshore drilling, and that there's supposedly some good renewable energy stuff in there.

The first thing I came to is a requirement for electric utility companies, that a certain percentage of the power they sell must be renewable energy. The bill has a specific definition of what is renewable energy and I think it's pretty good. One thing I like about the definition is that new hydro-electric plants are NOT considered renewable. Only increasing the efficiency of existing hydropower is acceptable. (no, nukular is not considered renewable).

the percentage of power that must be renewable starts out at 2.75% in 2010 and increases to 15% by 2020. This is very doable and would spark the economy. However I would note that according to Wikipedia we currently as a nation use renewables for 2.4% of our energy production so I would guess that by 2010 we would reach 2.75% without this legislation. still it's good to see some mandates.

this part looks juicy, increasing tax credits for residential solar energy:

(b) Maximum Credit for Solar Electric Property-
(1) IN GENERAL- Section 25D(b)(1)(A) is amended by striking `$2,000' and inserting `$4,000'.
(2) CONFORMING AMENDMENT- Section 25D(e)(4)(A)(i) is amended by striking `$6,667' and inserting `$13,333'.


more soon

here's the link, have at it:
http://thomas.loc.gov/home/gpoxmlc110/h6899_ih.xml

[bananas]

1. Gary, did you mean "I am noW a lawyer" or "I am noT a lawyer"?

If you are now a lawyer, congratulations!!!
(edit to add: I'm not being snarky, just checking if that's a typo).

[garybeck]

7. NOT

sorry for the tyop :)

[tom_paine]

2. Thanks for the info and the link!

:toast:

[bananas]

3. I heard some of the debate on c-span

The Republicans kept whining that it still had too many limits on drilling, "and there's nothing in here about nucular!"

They kept calling it a "no-energy bill".

[kristopher]

4. Well, they are going to require random drug testing of MMS

employees in the royalties section.
(d) Drug testing.—The Secretary of the Interior shall, within 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, implement a random drug testing program for the employees of the royalty-in-kind division of the Minerals Management Service.

[kristopher]

5. An excise tax on domestically mined and consumed coal. nt

[kristopher]

6. last notes

1 year extension of PTC for wind and a PTC for ocean energy sources.

Lots of stuff for energy efficiency and community development. It is a good job creator.

I like this bill but I expect (because it only extended the PTC for wind for a year) that it is just a hint of things to come.