Bush Signs Sweeping Energy Bill
President Bush on Monday signed a sweeping energy bill that will send billions of dollars in tax subsidies to energy companies, yet do little immediately to ease gas prices or lower reliance on foreign oil.
"This bill is not going to solve our energy challenges overnight," Mr. Bush said just before signing the bill into law. "It's going to take years of focused efforts to alleviate those problems."
Mr. Bush traveled here from his ranch in Crawford, Texas, to sign the 1,724-page bill, which was passed, with bipartisan support, to end a yearlong standoff in Congress over national energy policy.
The president portrayed the bill he signed as the launch of an energy strategy for the 21st century on a day when the price of oil hit another record high, reports CBS News Correspondent Mark Knoller.
On Monday, oil prices jumped to a new high near $64 a barrel, reflecting the market's persistent uneasiness about strong demand, tight supplies and a slew of threats to output around the globe.
Light, sweet crude for September delivery rose as high as $63.99 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange and settled at $63.94 -- the peak close since Nymex trading began in 1983.
The average nationwide price for regular unleaded gasoline is $2.34 a gallon, or 46 cents above last year, according to the Oil Price Information Service of Wall, N.J. Still, government data show that gasoline consumption is up almost 1 percent at 9.1 million barrels a day through July, compared with last year.
Mr. Bush said the bill would promote production and conservation, as well as reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil, reports Knoller.
The ceremony at Sandia National Laboratory in Albuquerque begins a week of events meant to highlight the president's legislative successes and underscore economic and national security issues.
In coming days, Mr. Bush meets at his Texas ranch with his defense and economic advisers and travels to Illinois to sign a highway bill.
Supporters say that in the long run, the new law will refocus the nation's energy priorities and promote cleaner and alternative sources of energy. Mr. Bush has said he believes the nation must find new ways, besides fossil fuels, to power the economy.
But even the bill's sponsors acknowledged the legislation will have little, if any impact, on today's energy prices or wean the nation away from its thirst for oil.
Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., who chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said the bill would provide financial incentives and federal policies "that we as a nation will benefit from, not tomorrow but for the next five or 10 years."
New Mexico Sen. Jeff Bingaman, the Energy Committee's top Democrat, praised the passage of the bill but said more must be done to tap the potential of renewable energy, address global warming and use less oil from overseas.
The bill did not "markedly reduce these imports," Bingaman said in a statement. "We need to build a consensus around effective steps to use less oil in our transportation sector, which is the basic cause of our increasing reliance on oil imports."
The measure funnels billions of dollars to energy companies, including tax breaks and loan guarantees for new nuclear power plants, clean coal technology and wind energy.
But for the first time, utilities will be required to comply with federal reliability standards for its electricity grid, instead of self-regulation. That is intended to reduce the chance of a repeat of a power blackout, such as the one that struck the Midwest and Northeast in the summer of 2003.
For consumers, the bill would provide tax credits for buying hybrid gasoline-electric cars and making energy-conservation improvements in new and existing homes. Also, beginning in 2007, the measure extends daylight-saving time by one month to save energy.
The bill's price tag — $12.3 billion over 10 years — is twice what the White House had first proposed. It does not include Mr. Bush's desire to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration. Drilling advocates, however, have a backup plan that is expected to unfold in mid-September.
Domenici said he will include a provision authorizing Arctic drilling as part of a budget procedure that is not subject to filibuster. A similar maneuver is being planned in the House, although the final strategy is being worked out.
Critics of the energy bill are speaking out while Mr. Bush is in New Mexico. The League of Conservation Voters, The Wilderness Society, the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance, USAPIRG and others plan to highlight what else is not in the energy bill.
Opponents say the bill amounts to a gift to energy companies that does nothing new to promote renewable energy.
Martha Marks of Santa Fe, N.M., president of the National Republicans for Environmental Protection, said the 10-year-old grass-roots organization was disappointed in the final version passed by Congress.
"It really gives a short shrift to conservation and it still continues to subsidize the well-established oil and gas industries that really don't need subsidizing especially when (crude) oil is $60 a barrel," she said.
Deb Callahan, president of the League of Conservation Voters, said the bill will do nothing to improve the environment, reduce dependence on foreign oil or bring down gas prices even in the long term.
"They did as little as they possibly could in order to have a nice talking point," she said.