Energy week preview PARED back.  In advance of the upcoming Memorial Day recess, the House planned to bring a series of bills to the floor in an attempt to address consumers’ concerns about high energy prices.  However, Majority Leader John Boehner (Ohio) announced on May 19^th that action would be delayed on two of the measures.  H.R. 5254, the Refinery Permit Process Schedule Act, (see next article) is delayed in hopes of reaching a bipartisan compromise.  Action is also delayed on H.R. 5359, legislation that would increase fuel economy standards in passenger vehicles through regulatory means.  The only legislation still scheduled for action this week is H.R. 5429, The American-Made Energy and Good Jobs Act, introduced by House Resources Committee Chairman Richard W. Pombo (R-California).  This legislation would open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to energy production.  It includes an export ban on any oil or gas produced on ANWR’s northern Coastal Plain.  The language of the legislation mirrors previous language voted on by the House in recent years allowing leadership to bypass the committee process and bring the bill straight to the floor.

House complicates ongoing energy discussions as it takes up next Appropriations bill.  The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to begin consideration of the FY 2007 Energy & Water Appropriations Act for FY 2007 (H.R. 5427) on May 24th.  During full committee consideration of the bill last week only one amendment, offered by Peter J. Visclosky (D-Indiana), was adopted.  The amendment increased funding in the legislation for energy conservation and weatherization activities by $30 million offset by a corresponding reduction in funding to the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP).  GNEP is an administration spent nuclear fuel recycling initiative.  The funding levels for GNEP as well as the perennial arguments over funding for the Yucca Mountain repository are shaping up to be one of the main points dividing the House and Senate. 

The $30 billion FY 2007 Energy & Water Appropriations bill also terminates funding for State energy program grants ($49.5 million ), the base funding for all 55 State Energy Offices.  The State Energy Program (SEP) is the primary state-federal cooperative program addressing energy efficiency in all sectors of the economy.  Federal funds are used to match state, local, and private funds for activities such as implementing energy projects, conducting public information campaigns, preparing for energy emergencies, and promoting alternative fuels.  Attempts to restore this funding may occur via floor amendments.  Complicating the discussion is a recent Department of Energy Inspector General's report that is critical of the SEPs and language in the Energy & Water Development Subcommittee report suggests that SEP monies are used only to fund state bureaucrats and travel.  Such criticisms have members of Congress categorizing the SEP funds as unnecessary “pork” that should be eliminated. 

FTC releases post-Katrina report.  Following the price increase experienced nationally after the Gulf Coast was hit by Hurricane Katrina last year, Congress mandated that the Federal Trade Commission examine nationwide gas prices and determine if they were “artificially manipulated by reducing refinery capacity or by any other form of market manipulation or price gouging practices.”  The Commission was also tasked with  investigating gasoline pricing by refiners, large wholesalers, and retailers in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.  The Commission released its report on Monday, May 22^nd and further information can be found on-line at:

http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2006/05/katrinagasprices.htm.  The Commission determined that there was no evidence of market manipulation.  It also found evidence suggesting price-gouging at 15 firms

(refiners, wholesalers and retailers) out of the 77 firms whose financial data was analyzed.  While the House has already passed  price gouging legislation (H.R. 5253).  The Senate returned to the issue at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing scheduled for today. 

Key Senator not Optimistic.  At an energy forum earlier this week Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, indicated that the limited legislative calendar is filling up quickly and the odds for passage of energy legislation this year is “less than 50-50”.  Combined obstacles include election-year issues filling the Senate’s calendar, action yet to be taken on any of the annual appropriations bills, and less than 40 legislative days left for the Senate to complete its work.

Supreme Court rules in Cuno case.  On May 15^th the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated an Ohio manufacturing tax credit that had been challenged by a group of Ohio and Michigan taxpayers and businesses.  The Court unanimously ruled that the group lacked standing and did not have the legal right to challenge the credit.  The decision overturned a federal appeals court ruling and assuaged concerns over the case’s implications for similar tax incentives around the country.  (The cases are DaimlerChrysler v. Cuno, 04-1704, Wilkins v. Cuno, 04-1724.)  For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/04-1704.ZS.html.