Two House Democrats reintroduced this week a bill targeting a ban on fracking, halting new fossil fuel power plants, and ending U.S. oil and gas exports, just as a group of Republicans introduced a bill aimed at protecting America's energy security.
Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, a Senior Chief Deputy Whip and Chair of the Energy and Commerce Consumer Protection and Commerce Subcommittee, and Congresswoman Nanette Diaz Barragán (D-CA) reintroduced this week their so-called Future Generations Protection Act of 2021, which, they say, "would help ensure a rapid shift away from fossil fuel to clean renewable energy."
"The Future Generations Protection Act is a critical step in our transition to clean energy and reaching the United States target to reduce emissions by 50 percent below 2005 levels by 2030," Congresswoman Schakowsky said in a statement.
"As we continue to #CombatClimateChange the U.S. must transition away from dirty fossil fuels toward clean energy!" Schakowsky tweeted this week.
The bill is endorsed by a number of environmental organizations, including Food & Water Watch, Sierra Club, Oil Change International, Friends of the Earth, Center for Biological Diversity, Zero Hour, Progressive Democrats of America, Earthworks, and Climate Hawks Vote.
"This bill is the most comprehensive approach to achieving that necessary goal - by stopping fracking, putting a halt to new fossil fuel power plants, and ending the oil and gas exports that deepen global dependence on dirty forms of energy," said Food & Water Watch Policy Director Mitch Jones.
The bill is reintroduced just as a group of Republican lawmakers introduced another bill that would protect the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserves and shore up U.S. energy security.
"The SPR is not supposed to be tapped as a bailout for the President's anti-fossil fuel agenda, which has led to the highest gas prices in seven years." Republican Leader Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) said.
The bill would prevent the Secretary from "executing the first drawdown of petroleum products in the Reserve" except when there is a "severe energy supply interruption", the text reads-even in the form of SPR loans-until the Secretary develops a plan to increase the percentage of federal lands leased for oil and gas production by the same percentage of oil set to be released from the SPR.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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Comments
Both positions have an element of truth.
The dilemma over which generation to protect -- the present one, or the next one -- could be handled in our marketplace, if we can possibly price our energy according to its real cost for us today, while also looking a bit into the future. Protect both generations, but pay the real freight while doing so.
Energy would cost what it really costs, without subsidy and while also factoring in disposal and pollutant cost. Seem reasonable?
May the best energy source win!