WASHINGTON - Republicans on the Natural Resources Committee today pushed several bills through the panel that would hamper development of renewable energy in the false guise of trying to help the industry, and piled on with a duplicative bill that would call for already-planned lease sales in the National Petroleum Reserve Alaska (NPRA).
Meanwhile, Republicans rejected Democratic amendments to keep the oil produced in the NPRA here in America, and against consulting with the Department of Defense and the Federal Aviation Administration to ensure that proposed meteorological towers wouldn't pose a risk to military training or commercial flights.
Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), the Ranking Member of the Natural Resources Committee, said that these bills amounted to little more than a Trojan horse effort to gut environmental protections that could later be used to further the Republican agenda that favors coal, oil, gas and nuclear power.
Rep. Markey and his Democratic colleagues said these Republican renewable energy bills wouldn't increase development of wind, solar, and geothermal projects, but instead promote more litigation and fewer alternatives provided by the current review system, potentially leading to more rejections of renewable projects, not more application approvals. The bills also do not reflect the testimony of renewable energy companies in the committee, who requested more certainty on financing and tax policy, not regression on environmental laws.
"These bills aren't just paying lip service to renewable energy, they do a disservice to the development of solar, wind, geothermal and other vital job-creating projects," said Rep. Markey. "Republicans are also pushing a bill that would duplicate the efforts of the Obama administration to open up the NPRA to production, but won't vote to keep here in America the oil taken from our own lands. One day after trying to send our light bulbs back to the technological dark ages, House Republicans continue to show they are not serious about energy legislation."
