Tuesday Update – Here's what "Congressional Quarterly" is reporting as of midafternoon today: Deal Clears Way For Friday House Vote on Energy Package. For one thing, the tax package that the Senate rejected is back. I lamented its exclusion in June in my post, The Morning After. (See also earlier posts on how close the Senate version came to including it and how it came to be blocked.) It's taken a lot of horse trading to get the 786-page omnibus bill, along with the $16 billion tax package, this far. Here's another take on where we stand from Reuters. The tax package (see this summary from the Ways & Means Committee) is not dissimilar to the one that was blocked from a vote in the Senate. It takes away subsidies from the oil and gas industry and gives that money to renewables. The last two big-ticket items, as I noted yesterday, are the CAFE standards (included in the Senate bill) and the Renewable Portfolio Standard (not in the Senate bill). There's going to be an awful lot of pushing and pulling between now and Thursday when the Rules Committee will determine whether or note the CAFE and the RPS can be offered as floor amendments on Friday.
Video from the American Wind Energy Association , These good folks (not the FPA, please note) are pushing hard for the Renewable Portfolio Standard. See their website and their video:
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