Dreier Votes to Approve Comprehensive Energy Policy

April 21, 2005

WASHINGTON, DC - Congressman David Dreier (R-CA), Chairman of the House Rules Committee, voted today to approve legislation that will help Californians find relief from high gas prices and improve our nation’s energy self sufficiency. The Energy Policy Act of 2005, H.R. 6, was approved with strong bipartisan support, 249-183.

“A comprehensive national energy policy is critical to both our economy and our national security,” Dreier said. “This legislation strikes the right balance of conservation, exploration, and innovation. We must generate our own sources of energy here at home, as well as foster greater conservation and efficiency. By doing both, we will boost supply and lower demand, effectively bringing down the costs of gasoline.”

The legislation approved today will expand domestic oil supply by increasing domestic oil and gas exploration and development on non-park federal lands, requiring 5 billion gallons of renewable fuel to be included in all gasoline sold in the U.S. by 2015, and streamlining the regulatory and approval process for the restart of idle refineries or the construction of new ones. It will increase conservation efforts by launching a state-of-the-art program to get hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles on the road by 2020, increasing the funding for the Department of Transportation to continue its work on improving the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards, and increasing the funding for the Department of Energy’s “Clean Cities” program, which provides grants to state and local governments to acquire alternative fueled and fuel-cell vehicles. Finally, the bill will reduce our dependence on foreign oil by allowing new domestic oil and gas exploration and development and by authorizing the expansion of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve’s capacity to 1 billion barrels.

Also included in the bill is an immediate waiver for California of the oxygenate mandate. This allows California, with its more stringent state requirements, to meet Clean Air Act standards without MTBE to reformulate gas. Because California already has an existing ban on MTBE, the waiver allows our state to meet standards without expensive additives. This will have a direct impact on lowering the price at the pump. The bill also deals with the important issue of MTBE contamination cleanup by creating a new funding category to clean up tank-related releases of oxygenated fuel additives like MTBE, maintaining the legal responsibility of any person actually responsible for environmental contamination, and allowing local efforts to address contamination problems to proceed.

DREIER ON H.R. 6: DIAL-UP / BROADBAND