Signed by President George Bush

Vote Smart's Synopsis:

Vote to pass a bill that increases fuel economy of motor vehicles and requires an increase in the production of renewable fuels.

Highlights:

• Increases Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) to 35 miles per gallon by the year 2020 (Sec. 102).

• Requires a minimum standard of 27.5 miles per gallon for domestic passenger vehicles (Sec. 102).

• Requires an increase in the production of renewable fuels from 4.0 billion gallons to 36.0 billion gallons by 2022 (Sec. 202).

• Stipulates that all renewable fuel refineries built after enactment of this bill reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 20 percent of the current baseline (Sec. 202).

• Increases energy efficiency standards for certain household appliances, battery chargers, walk-in coolers and freezers, electric motors, light bulbs, and other devices (Title III).

• Establishes the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Worker Training Program to provide training to veterans, unemployed individuals, and workers impacted by energy and environmental policies (Sec. 1002).

Full Bill Text

Vote Smart's Synopsis:

Vote to pass a bill that increases fuel economy of motor vehicles and requires an increase in the production of renewable fuels.

Highlights:

• Increases Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) to 35 miles per gallon by the year 2020 (Sec. 102).

• Requires a minimum standard of 27.5 miles per gallon for domestic passenger vehicles (Sec. 102).

• Requires an increase in the production of renewable fuels from 4.0 billion gallons to 36.0 billion gallons by 2022 (Sec. 202).

• Stipulates that all renewable fuel refineries built after enactment of this bill reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 20 percent of the current baseline (Sec. 202).

• Increases energy efficiency standards for certain household appliances, battery chargers, walk-in coolers and freezers, electric motors, light bulbs, and other devices (Title III).

• Establishes the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Worker Training Program to provide training to veterans, unemployed individuals, and workers impacted by energy and environmental policies (Sec. 1002).

Full Bill Text

Vote Smart's Synopsis:

Vote to pass a bill that increases energy efficiency standards and vehicle fleet fuel economy standards, and decreases tax deductions for certain oil-related income.

Highlights:

• Raises the required fleet average fuel economy for domestic automobile manufacturers to at least 35 miles per gallon by model year 2020 (Sec. 102).

• Requires 36 billion gallons of renewable fuels to be added to the gasoline supply by 2020 (Sec. 202).

• Increases energy efficiency standards for certain household appliances, battery chargers, walk-in coolers and freezers, electric motors, light bulbs, and other devices (Title III).

• Establishes a renewable energy and energy efficiency development program that will provide training to veterans, unemployed individuals, and workers impacted by energy and environmental policies (Sec. 1002).

• Makes bonds available for local projects to conserve energy (Sec. 1541).

• Requires retail electric energy suppliers to obtain 15 percent of their energy from renewable sources by 2020 (Sec. 1401).

• Lowers the income tax deduction for income from oil-related qualified production activities (Sec. 1561).

Full Bill Text

Vote Smart's Synopsis:

Vote to pass a bill that establishes provisions for biofuels for the purpose of energy security and transportation, promotes energy efficiency, establishes provisions for carbon capture and storage research, development, and demonstration, promotes cost effective and environmentally sustainable public buildings, prohibits price gouging, and establishes provisions for energy diplomacy and security.

Highlights:

• Increases Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards to 35 miles per gallon by the year 2020 (Sec. 502).

• Establishes an applicable volume of renewable fuel for commercial motor oil and oil used for home heating in the contiguous United States to be 8.5 billion gallons by 2008, and steadily increasing per year until 2022 (Sec. 111).

• Establishes an applicable volume of biofuels within the renewable fuel to be 3.0 billions of gallons by 2016, 6.0 billion gallons by 2017, and steadily increasing per year until 2022. For each year 2023 and after, at least sixty percent of the minimum applicable volume shall be advanced biofuel (Sec. 111).

• Establishes that the facilities which produce renewable fuel that commence after the enactment of this Act must reduce greenhouse emissions by 20% compared to gasoline (Sec. 111).

• Permits the President, with consultation from the Secretary of Energy, Secretary of Agriculture, and the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, to accept state petitions for waivers for the sustainable fuel requirements if it is established that the requirements severely harm the economy or environment of the state or region or the United States or extreme and unusual circumstances arise (Sec. 111).

• Provides exemptions to small refineries as defined by section 45H(c) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 until 2013 and permits the extension of the exemptions if disproportionate economic hardship would be imposed on the small refineries (Sec. 111).

• Provides up to ten competitive grant pilot programs that are geographically-dispersed to State governments, Indian tribal governments, local governments, metropolitan transportation authorities, or partnerships of those entities for the purpose of refueling infrastructure corridors, installing infrastructure and equipment necessary to ensure adequate distribution of renewable fuels and installing infrastructure and equipment that directly supports vehicles powered by renewable fuels. The maximum amount provided for through this grant shall not exceed $20,000 and shall not exceed two years in time (Sec. 121).

• Provides grants to institutions of higher education or consortium of institutions of higher education, industry, State agencies, Indian tribal agencies, or local government agencies located in the State with proven experience and capabilities for the purpose of conducting research, developing, and implementing renewable fuel production technologies that would produce low rates of ethanol production and low rates of cellulosic biomass ethanol (Sec. 125).

• Authorizes the Secretary of Energy to provide grants to Indian tribal or local governments and other eligible entities the Secretary sees fit for the purpose of promoting the development and infrastructure to support the separation, production, processing, and transportation of biomass to local biorefineries (Sec. 126).

• Establishes that the Secretary of Agriculture must make transitional assistance payments to an agricultural producer for the first year in which that producer devotes land to the production of a cellulosic crop that meets the requirement for being sold to a cellulosic refiner and produced within 70 miles from a cellulosic refinery (Sec. 131).

• Amends Section 211 of the Clean Air Act to include a prevention of air quality deterioration regulation that within 3 years of the enactment of the Renewable Fuels, Consumer Protection, and Energy Efficiency Act of 2007, appropriate measures to mitigate any adverse impacts on air quality as a result of the increased volumes required by the said Act must be implemented unless the administrator makes a "determination that no such measures are necessary" (Sec. 164).

• Amends Section 553 of the National Energy Conservation Policy Act by requiring that by October 1, 2013, all general purpose lighting in Federal buildings shall be Energy Star products or products that are designated under the Federal Energy Management Program (Sec. 211). 

• Amends the Standards for Fluorescent Lamps and Incandescent Reflector Lamps Section 325(i) to strike paragraph (1) and instead insert higher minimum standards of general service fluorescent lamps and incandescent reflector lamps to lamp efficacy and CRI standards (Sec. 212).

• Authorizes the Secretary of Energy to create more stringent standards for heating and cooling products for up to two specific regions so long as the more stringent standards would contribute to energy savings that are substantially greater than that of a single national energy standard and are economically justified (Sec. 222).

• Amends Section 324(a) of the Energy Policy and Conservation Act to require labels that disclose the energy use of televisions, personal computers, cable or satellite set-top boxes, stand-alone digital video recorder boxes, and personal computer monitors (Sec. 226).

• Amends Section 340(13) of the Energy Policy and Conservation Act by striking subparagraph A and increasing the efficiency standards for electric motors (Sec. 229).

• Amends Section 321(6)(A) of the Energy Policy and Conservation Act by requiring refrigerators, refrigerator-freezers, freezers, residential clothes washers, dishwashers and dehumidifiers to have a higher Energy Factor (Sec. 230).

• Authorizes the Secretary of Energy, beginning October 1, 2007, to grant competitive financial awards for the manufacture of high efficiency consumer products (Sec. 232).

• Requires an oil saving target and action plan to be produced no later than 270 days after the enactment of this Act and would be required to reduce the number of barrels of oil consumed annually (Sec. 251).

• Sets a goal of improving overall energy productivity of at least 2.5 percent per year by 2012 and to build upon that rate of improvement annually through 2030 (Sec. 252).

• Establishes target goals for the modernization of the electricity grid system, which includes maximizing the capacity and efficiency of electricity networks, enhancing electricity grid reliability, reducing line losses, facilitating the transition to real time electricity pricing, allowing grid incorporation of more onsite renewable energy generators, and enabling electricity to displace a portion of the petroleum used for transportation purposes (Sec. 254).

• Requires all Federal agency fleets to have at least a 20 percent reduction in petroleum consumption by October 1, 2015, while simultaneously increasing alternative fuel consumption by 10 percent annually. To achieve this goal, this Act proposes several measures that could be taken, such as using alternative fuels, acquiring vehicles with higher fuel economies such as hybrid vehicles, substituting cars for light trucks, increasing vehicle load factors, decreasing the mileage placed on vehicles, decreasing fleet size, telecommuting by Federal employees, using public transit, carpooling, or bicycling to work (Sec. 261).

• Requires the amount of renewable energy consumed by the Federal Government to increase by not less than 10 percent by 2010 and not less than 15 percent by 2015 (Sec. 262).

• Creates an initiative which would develop technologies and practices that can assist commercial buildings to be more energy efficient by 2030, allowing energy efficiency to be optional to any new building until 2040, where then half of all commercial buildings must meet the initiative, and where by 2050, all commercial buildings must be energy efficient (Sec. 268).

• Establishes a Federal purchasing requirement, where if an Agency purchases an eligible product, they must purchase a product that uses not more than 1 watt in standby power or an eligible product with the lowest available standby power wattage (Sec. 270).

• Creates a sustainable and comprehensive public education program that trains, in particular veterans of the Armed Forces, workers affected by the national energy and environmental policy, workers displaced by the impact of economic globalization, at-risk youth, formerly incarcerated and non-violent offenders, and individuals who need updated training in the renewable energy and energy efficiency industries, for jobs related to higher energy efficiency and renewable energy (Sec. 277).

• Establishes that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission does not have the authority to approve or license a current energy project on the outer Continental Shelf and also requires that any lease, easement, or right of way under the Secretary of Commerce must be issued on a competitive basis and also meet the established criteria of being placed for the purposes of meteorology or marine data collection and does not have a term longer than five years (Sec. 283).

• Establishes a carbon capture and storage research, development, and demonstration program in which the Secretary of Energy ensures that research is being invested in the development of new or improved technologies for capture and storage of carbon dioxide, development of new or improved technologies that reduce the cost and increase the efficacy of advanced carbon compression, modeling and simulation of geological field demonstrations, assessment of the risks involved with field testing, and research and development for the purposes of carbon use, recycling carbon, reusing carbon, and technology to separate oxygen from air (Sec. 302).

• Requires the Secretary of Energy to develop a methodology for carbon dioxide storage by a year after the enactment of this Act, while taking into consideration storage factors such as the geographical formation in all States, the capacity of the potential storage formations, an estimate of potential volumes of gas and oil recoverable from injection into potential storage formations, and also requiring the Secretary of Energy to take well log data, core data, and fluid sample data to supplement geographic surveys (Sec. 303).

• Establishes that the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, Secretary of Education, Secretary of Health and Human Services, and other relevant agencies shall create a voluntary guideline for States regarding development and implementation of an environmental health program that teaches students and staff about health, safety, and productivity and disabilities or special needs that impact the school community. The guide includes information on pollutant emissions from materials and products, natural day lighting, ventilation choices and technologies, moisture control and mold, maintenance, cleaning, and pest control, and acoustics (Sec. 445).

• Establishes that in times of energy emergency as declared by the President, price gouging and market manipulation is prohibited and punishable by a civil penalty up to $1,000,000 fine or a criminal penalty of up to a $5,000,000 fine or up to 5 years in prison (Sec. 609).

• Defines "price gouging" as charging an unconscionably excessive price charged by a supplier. Defines "unconscionably excessive price" as a price that has a gross disparity from the average price at which the item was offered for sale in the usual course of the supplier's business prior to the President's declaration of an energy emergency, a price that grossly exceeds the prices at which similar crude oil gasoline or petroleum that is obtainable from other purchasers, represents an unfair leverage on the part of the supplier, or if the price cannot be attributable to increased wholesale or operational costs (Sec. 602).

• Authorizes the President to declare a state of energy emergency if the President finds that the health, safety, welfare, or economic well being of the people is at risk because there is a shortage in crude oil, gasoline, or petroleum dude to a major disaster or disruption. The emergency may not exceed 30 days and must list the conditions or circumstances that would remove the emergency. The scope and regions the emergency affects must also be listed (Sec. 606).

Full Bill Text

Vote Smart's Synopsis:

Vote to pass a bill that amends the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to implement certain recommendations of the 9/11 Commission.

Highlights:

• Denies a deduction for income attributable to domestic production of oil, natural gas, or their related primary products (Sec. 102).

• Defines conditions of new leases authorizing oil or natural gas production in the Gulf of Mexico, requiring lessees to have (Sec. 204):
• Renegotiated covered leases to change payment responsibilities to include price thresholds equal to or less than specified price thresholds; or
• Paid all conservation of resources fees or agreed to pay them.

• Establishes fees for producing and nonproducing federal oil and gas leases in Gulf of Mexico (Sec. 204).

• Repeals incentives for natural gas production from wells in the shallow waters of the Gulf of Mexico (Sec. 205).

• Creates reserve of funds received as result of this Act, that will be used to offset costs of accelerating the use of renewable energy resources and alternative fuels (Sec. 301).

Full Bill Text
Full Bill Text

Full Bill Text