Through the spring and into the summer UCS has successfully blocked efforts to revive the harmful national energy bill that offers massive subsidies to dirty fossil fuels and nuclear power while largely excluding clean energy measures that would improve our security, economy, and protect our environment. UCS has also advanced other clean energy initiatives. For the second year in a row, we helped secure House support for the full restoration of $23 million in renewable energy and energy efficiency funding provided in the farm bill. We are also working to secure an extension and expansion of the renewable energy production tax credit.

America needs an energy policy that increases our energy security and protects the environment. Unfortunately, the energy bill crafted by congressional leaders last year (HR 6) threatened to take us backward by opening our public lands to oil and gas drilling, letting polluters off the hook for contaminating our drinking water, funneling billions of dollars in taxpayer money to polluting industries, and rolling back key Clean Air Act protections. In particular, the bill lacks sufficient commitment to clean energy solutions such as a renewable electricity standard (RES) requiring utilities to generate 10 percent of our nation's electricity from clean, renewable sources such as wind, solar, geothermal, and bioenergy by 2020.

In April 2004, the Senate rejected this dangerous bill for the second time, with the opponents criticizing both the substance of the legislation and the closed-door process that locked most Republicans and all Democrats out of final negotiations. Despite ongoing attempts resolve their differences, House and Senate leadership remain at an impasse. UCS will continue to oppose attempts to revive this flawed bill and advocate for clean energy solutions like the RES to improve our energy security, protect public health, and save consumers money.

Renewable energy and farming are a winning combination. The Department of Energy estimates that wind energy alone could provide $1.2 billion in new income for farmers and rural inhabitants by 2020 and 80,000 new jobs. Solar energy is an easy way for farms to cut their electricity and heating bills. Tripling the use of biomass energy, which is produced from plant and organic wastes, could provide as much as $20 billion in new income for farmers and rural communities and reduce global warming emissions by an amount equivalent to taking 70 million cars off the road, according to the Department of Energy.

The Bush administration’s budget request for fiscal year (FY) 2005 proposed slashing more than half of the $23 million in renewable energy and energy efficiency funding that Congress included in the 2002 Farm Bill (HR 2646, sec. 9006). This cut would hurt farmers, ranchers, and small rural businesses by shrinking a grant and loan program that supports energy efficiency improvements and the purchase of renewable energy systems such as wind turbines, solar electric panels, and biomass production equipment. At a time when many people in rural communities face economic challenges, funding these projects would help establish an additional income source for farmers, create jobs and lower energy costs for rural consumers. The program would also improve our energy security by increasing our reliance on homegrown energy sources and cut U.S. emissions of global warming pollution.

On July 13, 2004, the House voted to restore full funding for the program, rejecting the administration’s proposed cut for the second year a row.  It is now up to the Senate to secure 2005 funding for the program by supporting the House action.

Initially, efforts to extend and expand the PTC were held hostage to the failed and dangerous energy bill that remains stalled in the Senate. However, clean energy supporters succeeded in inserting the needed tax incentives language in a must-pass piece of legislation relating to foreign trade. An extension of the existing PTC is contained in the House version of the legislation (HR 4520), while both an extension and an expansion to additional renewable energy technologies was included in the Senate version (S. 1637). The conference to resolve the differences between the two is anticipated to convene in September. The governors of the four most populous states of California, New York, Florida, and Texas, have joined renewable energy advocates to strongly support the Senate language and remain optimistic that some version of the renewable provisions will be signed into law before adjournment this year.