{"id":1293,"date":"2005-06-17T16:07:00","date_gmt":"2005-06-17T16:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sustainablog.greenoptions.com\/2005\/06\/17\/positive-developments-from-the-senate\/"},"modified":"2005-06-17T16:07:00","modified_gmt":"2005-06-17T16:07:00","slug":"positive-developments-from-the-senate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/positive-developments-from-the-senate\/","title":{"rendered":"Positive Developments from the Senate"},"content":{"rendered":"
The debate over energy continues, and the Senate proves that they’re not complete ‘ho’s for oil and gas<\/a>:<\/p>\n The Senate Finance Committee on Thursday approved a $10.7 billion package of energy tax breaks and financial incentives over five years that will be tacked on to pending energy legislation. <\/p>\n The tax package came in under the $11 billion cap imposed by the Senate budget writers, but it is more than double the $6.7 billion limit the White House had sought over 10 years. The Senate energy tax package’s total cost over 10 years would be much higher at $14.1 billion.<\/p>\n Sen. Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican who heads the Finance Committee, said the tax package “supports the development of energy production from renewable and environmentally beneficial sources.”<\/p>\n The financial incentives will help promote alternative energy sources, which he said should ease US energy shortages and reduce America’s reliance on crude oil imports from the volatile Middle East.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n It’s certainly nice to see them stick it to the White House on this — can it survive a veto threat, though? Other good news<\/a>:<\/p>\n The US Senate narrowly approved a Democratic plan on Thursday to require utilities to generate 10 percent of their electricity from windmills and other renewable energy sources by 2020, despite objections from the Bush administration. <\/p>\n Senators voted 52-48 to add to the energy bill a federal mandate requiring electric utilities to offer more “green” power produced from wind, solar, and biomass sources.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Again, a nice move, but as the next paragraph notes, the overal energy bill “…aims to increase domestic supplies of oil, natural gas, coal, nuclear and other energy sources.” Color me ambivalent…<\/p>\n From Reuters<\/a>.<\/p>\n Technorati tags: energy<\/a>, politics<\/a>, United States<\/a><\/p>\n