Though the House Energy and Commerce Committee has cleared a massive global warming bill, but the legislation could face obstacles in several other committees that want to have a say on its final form.
The panel approved of the bill 33-25, with bill proponents winning over several Democrats by agreeing to give away pollution permits worth tens of billions of dollars to electricity producers, manufacturers, and oil refineries.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said this week that the House could vote on the bill before the August recess, but before that happens, negotiators will have to win over a number of Democrats who object to the legislation since hardly any Republicans are expected to support it.
The bill must also compete with health care reform, which President Barack Obama and other Democrats have labeled a more important priority than energy reform.
Members of the House Ways and Means Committee and the House Agriculture Committee are among the panels that want to mark up the bill and many key committee members have concerns with it.
House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson, D-Minn., said at a hearing earlier this month that he will not support any climate change bill because he does not trust the government to administer it without killing the biofuels industry.
The bill would put in place a “cap and trade” program limiting pollution and requiring those who exceed the limit to use special pollution allowances, or permits. The legislation calls for initially giving away 85 percent of those allowances, but most would be auctioned off at some point in the future.
The bill allots 35 percent of the free permits to go to electricity producers in an effort to stave off rate hikes for consumers. Another 15 percent would be awarded to steel plants and manufacturers and 2 percent would go to the oil refineries.
The bill would put in place a 2020 deadline by which 15 percent of America’s electricity would have to come from solar, wind or some other renewable energy source.
House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif, praised the panel for taking “decisive and historic action to promote America’s energy security and to create millions of clean energy jobs that will drive our economic recovery and long-term growth.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., hinted Friday that the bill is not in its final form, calling it “something that we will now build upon as we go forward” and acknowledging the bills opponents.
“We’re not leaving anyone behind,” she said. “We’re going down this path together.”
Republicans say the bill will essentially impose a national energy tax. The Senate won’t likely take any action on a major energy bill unless the House is able to pass something, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said.
