1Sky Policy Update

I received this email from 1Sky and I could not find it on their blog, so I thought it would be helpful to repost it here in it’s entirety.

A big thanks goes to 1Sky’s Rhiya Trivedi (rhiya {at} 1sky.org), with guidance from Jason Kowalski (jason {at} 1sky.org) for putting this together!!

1Sky is relieved by the House of Representatives’ passing of the American Clean Energy and Security Act in a close 219-212 vote last Friday. 1Sky activists sent more than 18,000 faxes to Members of Congress in 390 districts to convince them to strengthen and support the clean energy bill. Additionally, 1Sky enthusiasts logged 1,600 phone calls to their members of Congress to make sure they heard from constituents who care about a clean energy future. Over 900 1Sky members in 49 states and the District of Columbia signed up to visit their congressional district offices on June 19 to urge their elected representative to strengthen and support the energy bill. 570 climate activists sent letters-to-the-editor urging support of bold climate change legislation.

In the days preceding the vote, key Democratic representatives and members of President Obama’s Cabinet worked hard off the floor to whip up last minute votes, while strong grassroots pressure helped log thousands of calls and faxes to Congress from across the country, so many that the congressional switchboard was shut down. While Chairman Waxman, Representative Markey, and all who worked to get the votes and pass the bill deserve much gratitude for this historic victory, a great deal of work remains to be done in the Senate to pass the strongest climate legislation possible, and grassroots voices will have to be louder than ever in the coming months to demand it.

Read more for the great analysis!

Thanks to 1Sky’s Rhiya Trivedi (rhiya@1sky.org), with guidance from Jason Kowalski (jason@1sky.org) for this report:

Lead Up to the Vote

Deal struck with Agriculture Committee

  • After days of backdoor negotiations between House Speaker Pelosi (D-Cali.), Agriculture Chairman Peterson (D-Minn.) and Energy and Commerce Chairman Waxman (D-Cali.), a compromise was finally reached:
    • Authority over the approval and issuance of agricultural offsets was given to the Department of Agriculture
    • EPA has been banned from regulating “indirect land use emissions” from the domestic production of biofuels
    • The “renewable biomass” definitions was made significantly broader, with stripped down language and fewer restrictions on qualifying sources
  • The compromise moved several key “Ag” Committee members and representatives from farm states to support the bill and ultimately, help bring about a victory on the floor.
  • Environmentalists have expressed concerns over the agreement however, citing the USDA’s history of approving offsets for projects that would have normally occurred and the potential for unsustainable biomass practices to continue under the new bill.
  • Grist’s take on the deal: http://www.grist.org/article/2009-06-25-peterson-climate-bill-changes/

Amendments

  • More than 220 amendments were submitted to the Rules Committee, which were filtered into a Manager’s Amendment and released early Friday morning.
  • The Manager’s Amendment included significant quantities of new funding to increase renewable energy deployment and ease worker and industry transition, in addition to strengthening the presence of natural resource conservation, minorities and marginalized groups in the bill.
  • Weakened components included pieces already decided upon in the Agriculture Committee compromise: provisions to solidify free allowances for merchant coal, and adding new language that would spur inquiry into “thorium based fuel reactors” (a form of nuclear energy generation)
  • 1Sky Draft Analysis of the Manager’s Amendment: http://www.1sky.org/blog/2009/06/draft-summary-waxman-markey-managers-ammendment
  • Grist’s breakdown of included amendments: http://www.grist.org/article/2009-06-26-waxman-final-amendments/

Getting the Votes

Floor Debate and Vote

Debate

ACES in the Senate

Friday’s House passage could not have been achieved without GOP votes. The significant number of Democrats voting against ACES only serves to highlight the challenges the bill may face in the Senate, and the need for continued bipartisan support.

  • White House Senior Advisor David Axelrod says Senate will pass energy bill, despite not having 60 votes at the present: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0609/24292.html
  • According to E&E news, there are currently 45 “yes” or “probably yes” votes (including Republican Sens. Snowe and Collins of Maine), with 23 fence sitters. More bipartisan support is likely to come with greater compromise outside of the cap-and-trade portion of the bill. GOP support may be found in Sens. Michael Crapo (R-Ida.), Brownback (R-Kan.) and Voinovich (R-Oh.) Subscription Req’d: http://eenews.net/Greenwire/2009/06/29/2/
  • Committees with jurisdiction over the bill (Environment and Public Works, Agriculture, Commerce, Energy and Natural Resources, Finance and Foreign Relations) have been given a Sept. 18 deadline by Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to produce their pieces of the bill
    • Environment and Public Works Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Cali.) has said that she now aims to have her committee mark up climate legislation by the end of July (Greenwire)
    • Energy and Natural Resources Committee – The Committee passed a bill two weeks ago featuring provisions that would impose a 15% by 2020 RES (with up to 4% coming from efficiency), establish a wide range of efficiency standards, and boost green jobs training. Also included are liability protections for parties investing in carbon capture and sequestration projects, a significantly smaller offshore drilling buffer in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, protection for oil from the Canadian tar sands, and a nuclear energy title that would support reactors as viable, emissions-reducing technology.
  • It is currently unclear as to what the calendar for the “American Clean Energy and Leadership Act of 2009″ is in the weeks before a floor debate
  • Most climate advocates, including 1Sky, are refusing to support the bill in its current form, and will seek floor improvements to increase renewable energy deployment and eliminate safeguards for fossil fuels.

See our letter to the Committee here: http://www.1sky.org/blog/2009/06/senate-committee-passes-disappointing-energy-bill-heres-how-to-make-it-stronger

Important New Reports

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