Congressional confusion and infighting over the details of national energy development policy continue to stall investment in all forms of energy production construction, and will continue to do so until there is a clear policy direction from Congress and the administration. Republican leaders, including Senator John McCain and Senate Energy and Natural Resources ranking member Lisa Murowski are pushing for inclusion of nuclear electric power plants in the definition of "renewable energy" which Congress wants to mandate for more than 20% of electric power production. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Jeff Bingaman has excluded nuclear power from his version of the "renewable energy" definition. McCain points out that the Obama administration and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid want to scrap the $11 billion already invested in development of the Yucca Mountain disposal facility for spent reactor fuel rods.
Meanwhile, infighting over the details of carbon cap and trade legislation, and unintended consequences of earlier hastily passed "alternative fuel" legislation are eating up the time and resources of Congressional staffs which should be formulating a forward looking energy policy direction for the country. Tax incentives for "alternative fuel" production passed in 2005 have allowed paper mills to take enormous unintended "alternative fuel" tax credits for mixing a few tablespoonfuls of diesel oil with the black liquor pulp production byproduct they have burning to generate power for paper mills since the 1930's. Recent Congressional efforts to close what many environmentalists see as a tax loophole are strongly opposed by the ailing U.S. paper industry, which says mills will have to be closed and workers laid off if the industry is stripped of this tax benefit. To further complicate matters, Canadian paper mills are complaining to their government that the tax break is an unfair subsidy to American mills over their Canadian competitors.
Until Congress can wake up from these nightmares and work with the administration on formulation of a consistent, well thought out energy policy for America's future, this sort of thing will make investment in construction of new power plants and alternative fuel refineries a very iffy proposition at best, and construction businesses and trades workers who could be building these facilities of the future will continue sitting on the sidelines and collecting extended unemployment benefits.
Meanwhile, infighting over the details of carbon cap and trade legislation, and unintended consequences of earlier hastily passed "alternative fuel" legislation are eating up the time and resources of Congressional staffs which should be formulating a forward looking energy policy direction for the country. Tax incentives for "alternative fuel" production passed in 2005 have allowed paper mills to take enormous unintended "alternative fuel" tax credits for mixing a few tablespoonfuls of diesel oil with the black liquor pulp production byproduct they have burning to generate power for paper mills since the 1930's. Recent Congressional efforts to close what many environmentalists see as a tax loophole are strongly opposed by the ailing U.S. paper industry, which says mills will have to be closed and workers laid off if the industry is stripped of this tax benefit. To further complicate matters, Canadian paper mills are complaining to their government that the tax break is an unfair subsidy to American mills over their Canadian competitors.
Until Congress can wake up from these nightmares and work with the administration on formulation of a consistent, well thought out energy policy for America's future, this sort of thing will make investment in construction of new power plants and alternative fuel refineries a very iffy proposition at best, and construction businesses and trades workers who could be building these facilities of the future will continue sitting on the sidelines and collecting extended unemployment benefits.
