Defenders of Wildlife ▪ Earthjustice ▪
Environment America ▪ National Audubon Society ▪ League of
Conservation Voters ▪ League of Women Voters ▪ National
Wildlife Federation ▪ Natural Resources Defense Council ▪
Oceana ▪ Sierra Club ▪ The Wilderness Society ▪ Union
of Concerned Scientists
June 17, 2009
Dear Members of Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee:
On behalf of our millions of members and supporters we regrettably
write to convey that we are unable to support the American Clean Energy
Leadership Act of 2009 in its present form. While there are elements of
the bill that are strong and others that can be improved upon, prior to
or during floor consideration, several provisions would undermine the
nation’s efforts to advance clean energy solutions.
Now is the time for bold action on clean energy. From the big cities
of the coasts to the industrial heartland to our rural communities, the
slumping economy is taking its toll in shuttered businesses,
disappearing jobs, bankruptcies, foreclosures, and an increased sense of
anxiety about our collective future. To revive the American dream, we
need to rebuild our economy on a sound foundation – one that ends
our dependence on oil, puts people back to work, contributes to
long-term prosperity, rebuilds our communities, and addresses global
warming. The one path to achieve all of these goals is to take the lead
on global warming by moving to a clean energy future. We stand ready to
continue to work with the Committee and other Members to improve the
legislation and put the nation on the path to a clean energy future.
We support the bill’s appliance efficiency and
building code provisions:
• The appliance and industrial efficiency provisions would be
an important step forward and help the nation achieve some the most
cost-effective reductions in energy use and global warming pollution.
The bill also would enact specific efficiency standards on two products
that are not currently regulated, and includes improvements to the
Energy Star program that will result in more frequent updates, better
oversight, and consideration of several other improvements.
• We also applaud the national efficiency targets set for
residential and commercial buildings. The building code provisions will
help cut energy use in buildings significantly by providing targets for
improvement and aiding state enforcement, as well as effective incentive
programs to encourage retrofits of homes and commercial buildings.
The building energy information program provides valuable tools to help
consumers seeking to save money and energy in their homes and
workplaces. We encourage the Senate to adopt language on building
codes which provides more resources and a stronger federal backstop to
ensure that we meet the targets for efficient new buildings, and thus
help the nation implement some of the most cost-effective clean energy
solutions.
We urge you to strengthen the bill in several important
areas:
• The Renewable Electricity Standard (RES) should be
strengthened to ensure it drives a real and significant expansion of the
market for renewable energy in this country. Specifically, we urge you
to increase the amount of renewable energy generation that is needed to
meet the standard, improve the biomass definition, remove exemptions for
coal and nuclear energy, and close the Alternative Compliance Payment
loophole by requiring those funds to be used exclusively for the purpose
of increasing the quantity of renewable energy. Further, incorporating
an efficiency component into an RES is no substitute for a stand-alone
Energy Efficiency Resource Standard.
• The electric transmission policy reforms should be tailored
to advancing renewable energy development and include safeguards for
sensitive lands, fish and wildlife populations and their habitat, and
other natural and cultural resources. In particular, we support
inclusion of a greenhouse gas performance standard to limit access to
new electric transmission lines that are built under the new federal
planning, cost allocation, and siting authority in this bill. We also
support stronger upfront planning and siting requirements to avoid,
minimize, and mitigate impacts to fish and wildlife populations and
their habitat.
• The Renewable Energy and Public Lands title should be
strengthened to ensure renewable energy is not sited on federal lands
that are not suitable for energy development. Specifically, it should
require science-based siting for all forms of renewable energy
development to protect critical lands, resources, and to sustain fish
and wildlife populations and their habitat. A portion of revenues
generated from renewable energy development should also be directed
toward conservation purposes, such as restoration or land
acquisition.
• The 21st Century Energy Technology Deployment Act (CEDA)
provisions of the bill would provide much needed federal financial
support for energy efficiency and renewable energy projects. Such
support would help jump-start a robust private sector financing market
for these projects. The current CEDA provisions, however, pose
substantial and unnecessary risks to the environment and taxpayers by
reducing Congressional oversight and financial control under the Federal
Credit Reform Act, allowing potentially unlimited "self-pay" loan
guarantee authority for the most costly and least sustainable low-carbon
technologies, and failing to ensure that the cleanest and most
cost-effective technologies are prioritized for CEDA support. The bill
should be modified to remove these risks.
We strongly urge you to exclude the following provisions
from the final package prior to floor consideration:
• The high-carbon fuels exemption for Canadian tar sands would
take us backwards on global warming, and should be dropped from the
bill. Section 526 of the Energy Security and Independence Act of 2007
currently prevents federal agencies from contracting for dirty fuels
with higher global warming emissions than conventional fuels. The Senate
energy bill would weaken Section 526 by allowing federal agencies to
purchase dirtier high carbon fuels that are generally available. Lifting
this ban would enable federal agencies to purchase dirty fuels derived
from Canadian tar sands in certain circumstances, and would encourage
refineries to expand their capacity to use tar sands. Thus, the
amendment provides a significant exception to the government’s
obligation to avoid fuels that significantly exacerbate global
warming.
• The 2006 bipartisan compromise agreement that prohibited
drilling for oil and gas off the eastern coast of Florida until 2022
should not be overturned. Increased drilling will not lower prices at
the pump and with vast areas already leased and open to drilling, the
United States does not need to put Florida’s coastal economies and
wildlife further at risk.
As the nation continues to overcome the economic crisis, it is more
apparent than ever that we must move our country toward a new, clean
energy economy. America is up to the challenge. We have the technology,
the tools, and the know-how to use energy more wisely and to obtain our
energy from clean, renewable sources. Clean energy will create new jobs,
protect consumers from skyrocketing fossil fuel costs, and drive
billions of dollars in capital investment into our economy-even as we
solve the climate crisis and break our addiction to fossil fuels.
What’s more, clean energy can be produced right here at home,
freeing us from foreign sources of energy and creating new jobs in all
sectors of the nation’s economy - including many jobs that can
never be outsourced. Unfortunately, we cannot support the current bill
at this time, but we look forward to working with the Senate to
strengthen it as it moves through the legislative process.
Sincerely,
Mary Beth Beetham,
Director of Legislative Affairs
Defenders of Wildlife
Marty Hayden
Vice President Policy and Legislation
Earthjustice
Anna Aurilio
Director, Washington DC Office
Environment America
Tiernan Sittenfeld
Legislative Director
League of Conservation Voters
Judy Duffy
Advocacy Committee Chair
League of Women Voters
Mike Daulton
Legislative Director
National Audubon Society
Adam Kolton
Sr. Director of Congressional and Federal
Affairs
National Wildlife Federation
Franz Matzner
Acting Legislative Director
Natural Resources Defense Council
Beth Lowell
Federal Policy Director
Oceana
Debbie Sease
Director of National Campaigns
Sierra Club
Dave Alberswerth
Senior Policy Advisor
The Wilderness Society
Alan Nogee
Director Clean Energy Program
Union of Concerned Scientists
|
