Introduced with 199 cosponsors on Jan 12 and scheduled for a vote on Jan 18, H.R.6, the CLEAN Energy Act of 2007, will shift roughly $14 billion in oil industry subsidies toward renewable energy and energy efficiency.The House is scheduled to vote on H.R. 6 on January 18. The bill includes:
1) Strategic Energy Efficiency & Renewables Reserve, a fund for alternative fuels. Funding would come from amending legislation to require companies to pay royalties on deepwater production if oil or gas prices reached certain thresholds. The GAO estimates the omission of such royalties since 1998 and 1999 has cost the government nearly $2 billion.
2) Raising taxes ("YIKES") on domestic oil producers and spend the money to subsidize ethanol, solar energy, and wind power.
3) Renegotiation of oil company public lands royalty contracts or pay a $9 per barrel royalty fee from these leases or lose rights to bid on future leases on federal lands.
4) Rescinding $5-$6 in oil company tax breaks included in the Energy Policy Act of 2005.
Americans use about 20 million barrels of oil every day. The oil companies provide that oil at a very reasonable price. (Wash Post article)
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