Bush signing massive energy bill into law

Bush is to sign the 1,724-page bill Monday in New Mexico, home of Republican Sen. Pete Domenici, a driving force in getting the measure passed with bipartisan support last month. The measure ended a yearlong congressional standoff over energy policy.

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, 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. 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.

Domenici, 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.”

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 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 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.

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.