The House of Representatives opened a free-for-all debate on the omnibus energy bill last week.
Most of the action centered at first in the rules committee. It decides which amendments can be offered on the floor. About 50 congressmen testified on more than 100 amendments before the panel.
The committee attempted to reduce the amendments to a manageable number so the House could pass the bill in the 2 days remaining before a Memorial Day recess,
The committee also faced a mine field of veto threats from the Bush administration, which said the president might not sign a bill that restricted carbon dioxide emissions, limited offshore exploration, or required refiners and importers to set aside 1% of their petroleum supplies in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
AMENDMENTS
Earlier, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) withdrew his amendment to restrain carbon dioxide emissions, believed to contribute to global warming, because the administration had agreed to an international global warming treaty.
The committee included in the omnibus bill offshore lease sale moratoriums proposed by the interior and merchant marine committees.
But the House must vote on a ways and means committee amendment voiding the 1% SPR setaside and giving independent producers limited relief from the alternative minimum tax (OGJ, May 11, p. 33).
The rules committee allowed Reps. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and James Scheuer (D-N.Y.) to offer an amendment blocking producing states from using natural gas prorationing as a method of raising prices (OGJ, May 4, p. 27).
Markey and Scheuer said excessive prorationing interferes with interstate commerce. Their amendment sets standards designed to limit prorationing.
The rules panel also allowed Rep. Jim Jontz (D-Ind.) to offer an amendment requiring the Department of Energy to set goals to attain greater use of ethanol in gasoline.
It would require 2% of all automotive fuel to be ethanol in 1994, about 2.2 billion gal/year, and 8% or about 9 billion gal/year by 2006. The U.S. currently uses about 1 billion gal/year of ethanol as fuel.
API OPPOSITION
The American Petroleum Institute said the amendment conflicts with the 1990 Clean Air Act amendments because "use of ethanol as a motor fuel also increases automotive emissions of nitrogen oxide and hydrocarbons, which contribute to ozone formation."
API said such a large increase in ethanol use could drive up food prices because huge amounts of grain would be needed for. ethanol production, and it would be expensive for the federal treasury and the Highway Trust Fund because fuel ethanol production receives tax subsidies.
Copyright 1992 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.
