LOCATION/TYPE

NEWS HOME

[ exact phrase in "" • results by date ]

[ Google-powered • results by relevance ]


Archive
RSS

Add NWW headlines to your site (click here)

Get weekly updates

WHAT TO DO
when your community is targeted

RSS

RSS feeds and more

Keep Wind Watch online and independent!

Donate via Paypal

Donate via Stripe

Selected Documents

All Documents

Research Links

Alerts

Press Releases

FAQs

Campaign Material

Photos & Graphics

Videos

Allied Groups

Wind Watch is a registered educational charity, founded in 2005.

News Watch Home

Negotiations ‘very fluid’ over energy trade in spending bill 

Credit:  By John Siciliano | Washington Examiner | 12/10/15 | www.washingtonexaminer.com ~~

Senior senators on energy and taxation, across both aisles, said Thursday that they either didn’t know, or that negotiations were too fluid to comment, about a potential deal over energy subsidies in an end-of-year rush to pass a government spending bill.

“I don’t know,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, chairwoman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, in response to a question on how negotiations were going. A hearing she was conducting on the geopolitics of oil had dominated most of her morning, so she didn’t have time to consider a deal that could lift the 40-year-old ban on oil exports, which she favors.

“I’ve been up here all morning,” she said. Many of her fellow Republicans at the hearing voiced their support for lifting the ban, although they did not talk about the negotiations overshadowing everything in Congress this week.

Briefings on the negotiations are expected later this afternoon, but GOP aides say Democrats are gumming up the works by insisting that wind energy tax credits be extended in the spending measures, if Republicans insist on adding a repeal of the 40-year-old ban on oil exports to the bill.

The top Democrat on the Finance Committee, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., told the Washington Examiner, “I think it’s very, very fluid,” when asked if a deal could be had with Democrats over extending the wind credits in exchange for lifting the ban. “We are working hard” to get a bill, but there is nothing solid at this point.

His committee has jurisdiction over the “tax extenders” for renewables and dozens of other provisions that are expiring at the end of the month or were allowed to end last year. The wind credits are considered invaluable to the wind industry, and President Obama has been pushing to have them extended permanently.

The debate over the omnibus spending bill is expected to go into next week, as the Senate Thursday afternoon passed a short-term government funding measure through Dec. 16, and the House is expected to follow suit.

Lobbyists say parts of the energy deal being discussed are “irrational,” with Democrats pushing for an indefinite extension of the production tax credit for wind energy, which they know will make many Republicans unhappy. Other lawmakers continue to add amendments to the spending bill, which could bog it down and create more of a stalemate.

The White House is urging Republicans work to pass a clean bill next week that is free of riders opposing the EPA’s Waters of the U.S. rule, which is being hotly contested in the courts as well as in Congress.

Source:  By John Siciliano | Washington Examiner | 12/10/15 | www.washingtonexaminer.com

This article is the work of the source indicated. Any opinions expressed in it are not necessarily those of National Wind Watch.

The copyright of this article resides with the author or publisher indicated. As part of its noncommercial educational effort to present the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development to a global audience seeking such information, National Wind Watch endeavors to observe “fair use” as provided for in section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law and similar “fair dealing” provisions of the copyright laws of other nations. Send requests to excerpt, general inquiries, and comments via e-mail.

Wind Watch relies entirely
on User Funding
   Donate via Paypal
(via Paypal)
Donate via Stripe
(via Stripe)

Share:

e-mail X FB LI TG TG Share


News Watch Home

Get the Facts
CONTACT DONATE PRIVACY ABOUT SEARCH
© National Wind Watch, Inc.
Use of copyrighted material adheres to Fair Use.
"Wind Watch" is a registered trademark.

 Follow:

Wind Watch on X Wind Watch on Facebook

Wind Watch on Linked In Wind Watch on Mastodon