The Tennessean
By Anne Paine
Published: August 6, 2008
An energy bill with something for everyone — the nuclear, coal and renewable resources industries included — could immediately reduce prices at the gas pump and bolster the economy, according to U.S. Sen. Bob Corker. Corker, R-Tenn., stopped by Lipscomb University on Tuesday to promote the new proposal, nicknamed the "Gang of Ten" bill.
"It creates additional offshore oil production," Corker said. "It focuses heavily on conservation, and it focuses heavily on moving us into the future."
He was standing in one of the campus' eco-friendly, geothermally heated and cooled buildings as he made his remarks to school officials and reporters. Outside was the black Chevrolet Suburban he arrived in.
The bill, sponsored by five Democratic and five Republican senators, was announced last week as efforts stalled to pass energy legislation before Congress adjourned.
"We need to increase offshore production, but I don't think that's our future," Corker said.
The country can't "produce its way out" of the situation it's in, he said. Vehicles that run largely on non-petroleum products and renewables, including wind energy, are the real answer, he said.
As it is, the U.S. is home to 4 percent of the world's population and 3 percent of the world's oil resources, but uses 25 percent of the world's petroleum, Corker said.
His talk echoed statements from the environmental movement for the past two decades. But the similarity grew fainter when it came to some of the solutions proposed.
Among the bill's offerings are a faster depreciation schedule for nuclear plants to make them more economically attractive; lifting the moratorium on offshore drilling; up to $7,500 in tax credits for residents who buy non-petroleum-powered vehicles; extending tax credits for energy conservation and use of alternative energy sources; and $500 million for research for liquid coal as an alternative fuel for vehicles.
One environmental group said the plan could do harm and needs more backing for clean energy sources.
"The worst piece of this is subsidies that could jump-start the production of liquid coal," said Nick Berning, with Friends of the Earth Action, an environmental advocacy group. "It's just an incredibly dirty technology, and it's not where we need to be headed.
"We also think the offshore drilling provisions and nuclear power subsidies should go. The best pieces here are the incentives for more efficient vehicles … as well as the extension of the renewable energy tax credits."
Corker said Tuesday that the money for liquid coal development would include finding ways to capture the carbon that would come from the coal, to make it burn cleaner.
Also, a 50-mile buffer would be required between offshore drilling and the coast, and the work would begin first in the Gulf of Mexico where piping already exists to transmit petroleum, he said. This cuts the time frame to have new domestic supplies to gas pumps.
The bill, formally called the New Energy Reform Act of 2008, is comprehensive and balanced and would help the economy, Corker said. Its costs — $84 billion over 10 years — would be paid for by closing a loophole in the tax laws that oil companies have been using.
He contrasted the bill with this year's economic stimulus checks mailed to U.S. taxpayers, which cost $168 billion in borrowed money. He had opposed the package.
"This is paid for … and I think it has a chance," he said.
If the country gets serious about energy — especially conservation and alternative energy resources — the costs of gas will go down at the pump, he said. He compared it to the Volkswagen plant announced recently in the Chattanooga-Hamilton County area that sent land prices up.
"The markets are priced on what they expect to occur," he said. "If a country that uses 25 percent of the world's petroleum on a daily basis changes the equation, it immediately affects the price."
In the case of gas, the pump price would drop when the bill passed, he predicted.
Developing countries would follow the lead, skipping the step of old, polluting technologies and focusing on renewable resources, he said.
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