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Energy Bill Loses Efficiency Incentives

Posted on: Wednesday, 1 March 2006, 18:00 CST

By Greg Edwards, Richmond Times-Dispatch, Va.

Mar. 1--A bill moving through the General Assembly that would create a state energy plan was stripped yesterday of incentives to promote energy conservation and efficiency.

Sen. Frank W. Wagner, R-Virginia Beach, asked a House subcommittee to approve an amended version of his energy bill without the tax incentives meant to encourage consumers to buy energy-efficient appliances and vehicles.

The tax incentives, although not costly, would hurt the bill's chances at a time lawmakers are struggling to agree on a transportation-funding plan, according to Wagner.

Wagner also noted that a section of his bill that would provide grants to individuals or businesses that install wind- and solar-powered energy sources has not been funded by the legislature's budget committees.

The lack of incentives for energy conservation and renewable energy was a concern to environmental groups.

Those groups also have criticized the bill because it supports offshore drilling and calls for the pre-emption of local land-use decisions in locating wind, liquefied natural gas and nuclear power facilities.

The bill does little to nothing to promote energy conservation and curb energy demand, said Michael Town, director of the Virginia Chapter of the Sierra Club.

Town noted that former Secretary of Commerce and Trade Michael Schewel had said in an offshore-drilling study released last month that energy conservation and efficiency would be the best short-term solution to the state's energy needs.

Wagner's bill has the support of Virginia manufacturers as well as the state's electric and natural-gas utilities.

Brett Vassey, who is president of the Virginia Manufactures Association, said that provisions in the bill to encourage natural-gas development offshore and in landfills could help preserve the jobs of 10,000 Virginia workers whose companies depend on ample and reasonably priced supplies of the fuel.

The energy bill, when it still contained the conservation incentives, passed the Senate 31-6 on Valentine's Day. Wagner promised to seek the deleted tax incentives next year.

The bill, among other things, would:

--create a state energy policy;

--direct the Virginia Division of Energy to develop a 10-year state energy plan;

--support research into cleaner ways to burn coal; and

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Copyright (c) 2006, Richmond Times-Dispatch, Va.

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Source: Richmond Times-Dispatch

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