Posted: 02/09/2005
National Energy Plan Needs To Focus On Consumers
NCPA E-Team Scholars Say Plan Needs to Be Energy-Neutral
DALLAS (February 8, 2005) – With mark-up due anytime on a national energy bill congressional debate should focus on workable legislation, according to E-Team scholars at the National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA). The bill is important since estimates indicate that during the next 20 years oil consumption will grow by one-third and electricity demand could increase by more than 45 percent.
“Rather than trying to be all things to all people through subsidies and mandates, the new energy plan should focus on putting consumers and American taxpayers first,” said NCPA Senior Fellow H. Sterling Burnett.
Industry insiders say the bill currently headed to Congress closely resembles H.R. 6, which was approved twice last year by the House of Representatives. But E-Team scholars say many of the provisions in H.R. 6 need to be revamped:
- Remove federal, state and local barriers to interstate and intrastate oil, gas and electricity infrastructure expansions, including pipelines, transmission lines and natural gas receiving and oil refinery facilities.
- Repeal the Public Utility Holding Company Act, which would strip away layers of regulation that are 40 years out of date.
- Expand the nation’s transmission system, which has steadily been lagging increases in electrical load.
- Increase domestic energy production. Oil and gas exploration are not necessarily incompatible with environmental quality.
“The bill should be energy neutral, ending all energy subsidies,” Dr. Burnett added. “That should please both conservatives who decry tax breaks for renewable energy and environmentalists who claim the fossil fuel industry receives unmerited public subsidies.”