BODY: In a rational world, the members
of the House of Representatives would disappear on their August vacation this
Friday without touching the energy bill that lies before them, then start all
over again in September. The bill is a mishmash of four smaller measures written
by four separate committees. It runs to 511 pages, which few members have
actually digested. It contains some useful suggestions to improve electricity
transmission and streamline the distribution of natural gas. It also has modest
subsidies for alternative fuels like wind and solar power and modest tax credits
for energy-efficient cars and homes. On the whole, however, it is a dismal
compendium of tired ideas favoring the coal, oil and gas industries.
Nevertheless, voting is expected to begin today, and since
most members are eager to show their constituents that they care about energy,
passage is virtually assured. The best one can hope for is a series of
ameliorative amendments that strip the bill of its worst provisions while adding
others of real value.
Among the most objectionable
sections is one that would open the coastal plain of the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration, disrupting an ecological treasure. Two
members -- Nancy Johnson, Republican of Connecticut, and Edward Markey, Democrat
of Massachusetts -- will offer an amendment to strike it. They deserve their
colleagues' strong support. Other bad provisions would weaken federal oversight
of public lands coveted by the oil and gas industries or would otherwise
threaten environmental values in wilderness areas that are best left alone.
Republican moderates led by Sherwood Boehlert of New York have been negotiating
with the leadership to soften these provisions. They should be struck
entirely.
Meanwhile, Mr. Boehlert and Mr. Markey have
persuaded the leadership to allow a vote on an amendment that would make
meaningful changes in fuel economy standards as opposed to the trivial
improvements now contained in the bill. The amendment would close the so-called
S.U.V. loophole, under which large vehicles like S.U.V.'s and minivans are
classified as light trucks and therefore escape the 27.5-mile-per-gallon
standard required of ordinary cars. By some estimates, closing that loophole
could result in oil savings of more than one million barrels a day by 2015,
considerably more than the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge would be expected to
produce in the same time frame.
These and other
amendments would do much to redress the imbalance between exploration and
conservation that now disfigures the bill, much as it disfigured President
Bush's original energy plan. Regrettably, however, the leadership has said that
some provisions are untouchable. These include lucrative tax breaks for industry
that, in the aggregate, greatly exceed the incentives for conservation. The coal
industry benefits more than any other, with billions in subsidies for "clean
coal" technologies. The moderates are insisting that some of this be spent on
coal gasification, the one technology with real promise. But there are billions
in additional tax breaks that offer no apparent yield in terms of efficiency or
cleaner air.
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