A blame game based around the Aug. 14 blackout that crippled the US Northeast and parts of eastern Canada could delay—but probably not derail—the passing of an energy bill by this fall. The US Congress returns next month, with power outage-related hearings, task forces, and studies now crammed into an already ambitious legislative calendar.
But leaders of the Republican-controlled legislature say they are optimistic about sending President George W. Bush an energy bill to sign by late November. Democrats also profess a desire to pass a bill that does more than simply encourage better transmission grids.
Powerless bill?
There is, however, at least one influential House Democrat who says the larger energy bill is so contentious that the electricity title should be considered separately.
"We may need to put targeted reliability legislation on the fast track, and not let it get bogged down in the broader energy bill now going to conference," said Rep. John D. Dingell (D-Mich.), ranking member on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
For now it appears few colleagues agree. The chairmen of the House and Senate committees overseeing pending energy legislation say the recent power failure is just one symptom of a bigger energy infrastructure problem they want to solve.
President Bush also says he wants one large energy reform package. But the exact legislative fix may be hard to craft until federal investigators fully understand why the grid went down in the first place. That might take several weeks or months. And until there is a clear answer, the finger-pointing, and delay will continue.
Other considerations
No one disputes the US power grid should be modernized, but Congress for years avoided resolving the larger issue of what the federal government's role should be in wholesale electric markets.
Lawmakers for years have flirted with an agreement on that key question, but other controversial items in energy reform legislation, such as leasing in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, have helped postpone a final resolution.
This time around, policymakers might still try and avoid larger jurisdictional issues but might at least finally agree on narrow policy questions, such as reliability standards and transmission line siting. That way, a final energy bill can be salvaged and include the important political goodies, such as ethanol mandates and tax breaks both parties want to leverage for upcoming elections. "The bottom line is that, while the odds favoring an energy bill were already pretty good, the blackout will give the legislation an extra push," the Society of Independent Gasoline Marketers of America told its members.
"Until now, many senators and congressmen could argue that 'no bill is better than a bad bill' as part of their negotiating strategy—they could risk being accused of torpedoing the overall bill in order to sustain a particular provision such as drilling in ANWR. Likewise, the option of dealing with ethanol in a stand-alone bill and letting overall energy legislation die was a viable option. We think neither of those is a winning position for any politician today."