The description below was provided Thursday evening by the National Mining Association (NMA) relative to the action taken on Thursday (Day 4) on the "climate change" bill by Congressman Waxman's House Energy and Commerce Committee. During the four days of consideration, it appears that most amendments failed along party lines. Also note that this bill has several other committee references before it gets to the floor for a full House vote.
West Virginia's 2nd District Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capit announced yesterday she would vote against the Climate Change Bill, once it gets to the floor. Moments ago (Thursday, May 21), the House Energy and Commerce Committee finished consideration of H.R. 2454, "The American Clean Energy and Security Act," and by a vote of 33 to 25 ordered the bill reported to the House of Representatives. The bill was supported by all of the committee Democrats except Rep. John Barrow (Ga.), Rep. Jim Matheson (Utah), Rep. Charlie Melancon (LA) and Rep. Mike Ross (AK) who voted against reporting the bill. All of the committee Republicans except for Rep. Mary Bono Mack (CA) voted against reporting the bill. The committee's action concluded four days of debate and consideration of 94 amendments. The more significant changes to the legislation were reported in our first update which is attached to this memorandum for your convenience.
Although the committee reported the bill to the House, it has also been referred to nine other House committees which must take some form of action on the bill before it can be considered by the full House. While most of those committees are expected to take only pro forma action to advance the bill, the Chairs of the Ways and Means and the Agriculture Committees have expressed their intentions to make significant modifications to the bill. As a consequence, consideration by the full House likely will be delayed until late June or early July.
The committee debate over the past four days highlighted the importance of coal to the Nation's present and future energy security as well as the risks increased energy costs pose to mining and manufacturing. Several amendments debated today that highlighted these points include:
* Economic Safety Valve: Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.) proposed an amendment to establish a "safety valve" to contain costs within the proposed cap and trade system. If adopted, it would have allowed businesses to make a payment of $15 per ton of carbon dioxide to meet their compliance obligations. Proceeds from the "safety valve" would be directed to the fund established to support accelerated commercial deployment of carbon capture and storage (CCS). The amendment was supported by committee Republicans but was defeated on a 20 to 35 party line vote.
* Renewable Energy Standard: Rep. Joe Pitts (R-Pa.) offered an amendment that would establish precedence of existing state renewable energy standards over the federal standard proposed in the bill. The amendment was defeated by a vote of 23 to 21. Rep. Zack Space of Ohio was the only Democrat to support the Pitts amendment.
* CCS and Coal Plant Standards: Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.) offered an amendment to establish a comprehensive legal framework governing carbon capture and storage liability in order to provide the certainty needed to attract investment. Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) offered an amendment to strike the coal generation performance standard from the bill, and Rep. Pitts offered an amendment that would have made coal generation with CCS eligible as a renewable energy source. All three amendments were defeated en bloc on a vote of 23 to 33 with Rep. Space and Rep. Jim Matheson (D-Utah) as the only Democratic supporters.
* Economic Impacts: Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) offered an amendment that would suspend the act if two or more coal mines were closed as a consequence of its implementation. Democrats argued that the legislation provides sufficient incentives to ensure that coal production will not be negatively impacted by the legislation and the provision is unnecessary. The Shimkus amendment was defeated on a vote of 22 to 34 with Rep. Space as the only Democratic supporter.