Refinery Bill Before House Panel
By Maria Recio, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas
Sep. 28–WASHINGTON — In response to higher gasoline prices and tight supplies, the House is on a fast track today to put together a new energy bill, with House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Joe Barton leading his panel in voting on a bill intended to increase refining capacity while another committee votes on opening up more U.S. fields for production.
“Hurricane Katrina has taught us some harsh lessons,” Barton, R-Ennis, said Monday as he released a draft of the bill. “One of those lessons resonated loudly in our committee’s hearing on Katrina: If we expect gasoline to remain affordable for America’s working people, we absolutely must build additional refinery capacity.”
The energy committee will consider the bill early today, with debate expected over the bill’s plans to streamline environmental rules tied to construction of new refineries.
“I think it’s a good thing we have tough environmental laws and a good thing we enforce them,” Barton said. “But if you were to build a refinery overseas in certain countries, you don’t have to do anything environmentally. I don’t think that’s fair.”
The bill’s plan to allow the Environmental Protection Agency to stretch out compliance deadlines with the ozone standard would impact Dallas-Fort Worth, one of the areas affected by air pollution from elsewhere.
In a letter to Barton sent Tuesday, the State and Territorial Air Pollution Program Administrators and the Association of Local Air Pollution Control Officials said that “the air quality-related provisions of the bill weaken existing law” and that the changes in permitting for refineries pre-empt state and local authorities.
Another point of contention: the bill’s provision to promote conservation via carpooling instead of by raising the federal government’s fuel-economy standards.
“This energy bill is the worst GOP energy bill we have seen in weeks,” said Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., alluding to the energy bill Congress approved in July. Markey is an advocate for an increase in fuel-economy standards from the current 27.5 mpg fleet average for cars to 33 mpg in 10 years.
In response to an outcry by politicians and constituents about gasoline price “gouging,” the bill requires the Federal Trade Commission to investigate nationwide gasoline prices in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and to study prices of refined petroleum products on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Meanwhile, the House Committee on Resources will consider the National Energy Supply Diversification and Disruption Prevention Act, a bill that would open up Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for drilling and enable states to permit drilling that is currently prohibited on the Outer Continental Shelf.
“This month Mother Nature proved just how vulnerable America is to supply disruptions,” said Chairman Richard Pombo, R-Calif.
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