API: Senate Democratic Energy Plan Could Threaten Consumers, Energy Renaissance

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A plan to raise taxes on energy and pick winners and losers in the marketplace released by Senate Democrats is backward-facing and could threaten America’s energy revolution and harm consumers, according to API Executive Vice President Louis Finkel.

“API supports an all-of-the-above energy strategy based on America’s vast resources that will provide affordable and reliable energy to consumers here at home and abroad for generations to come. This proposal uses taxpayer dollars to raise the cost of energy for American consumers.

“America’s oil and natural gas industry pays one of the highest tax rates among U.S. businesses, generating billions of dollars every year in revenue for the federal government. Instead of higher taxes and royalty rates that discourage domestic production, policymakers should follow pro-development energy policies that create jobs and help our nation provide affordable and reliable energy for consumers.

“Even as record amounts of domestic energy are recovered, the oil and natural gas industry’s multibillion dollar investments in low- and zero-emissions technologies continue to drive down greenhouse gas emissions. These investments have helped America lead the world in reducing carbon dioxide emissions, which are down to 27-year lows. A strong domestic oil and natural gas sector provides hundreds of thousands of workers with well-paying jobs, indirectly supports millions of additional jobs and continues to drive down the cost of energy for consumers. By embracing America’s energy renaissance, we can lower costs, clean the air, and create more jobs here at home while providing an example to the world. It’s ironic that the U.S. would strike a deal to allow Iranian crude onto the global market while refusing to give the same opportunity to American producers.

“Maintaining a world-leading economy is simply not possible without using fossil fuels. The Energy Information Administration estimates that fossil fuels will account for 80% of U.S. energy consumption though 2040.”

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According to a release announcing the bill, it claims to:

  • Advance policies that give consumers access to their electricity data;
  • Create a federal Energy Efficiency Resource Standard, which would save consumers $150 billion over the next 15 years, and support research and development on smart buildings;
  • Invest in energy storage, integrate clean energy onto the grid, improve the security of the grid and help manage electricity demand;
  • Implement recommendations from the Quadrennial Energy Review to improve the resilience of the U.S. electric grid, natural gas distribution system and the Strategic Petroleum Reserve;
  • Cut greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to all passenger vehicles and a third of U.S. homes and secure carbon reduction targets from other countries;
  • Triple funding for basic energy science and technology research, to maintain global leadership and to invest in the next generation of clean energy technologies that we can export internationally;
  • Double investments in cybersecurity research and develop and designate DOE as the sector-specific lead for energy;
  • Prepare a new generation of skilled workers for a 21st century energy workforce through job training and model energy workforce curriculum;
  • Permanently reauthorize and fully fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund;
  • Offer technical assistance to small and medium manufacturers to implement smart manufacturing technologies and expands the Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing Program to include trucks; and
  • Invest in clean energy technologies and repeal subsidies for fossil fuels.

The full text can be found here: http://www.energy.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2015/9/senate-democrats-offer-pathway-to-a-cleaner-energy-future-and-economy

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