House approves $12 billion energy package

WASHINGTON - The House  on Thursday approved a $12 billion energy bill backed by the White House that contains incentives to increase domestic production of crude oil, natural gas, coal, nuclear and other energy sources.

The broad bill, approved by a 249-183 vote, also contains provisions to allow oil drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, to shield makers of a gasoline additive from water contamination lawsuits and to boost production of ethanol, a corn-distilled fuel additive.

The largely Republican-crafted bill was approved after two days in which the GOP majority turned back repeated attempts by Democrats to add measures they said would reduce energy use, including a proposal for higher automobile fuel economy requirements.

The bill includes $12 billion in tax breaks over 10 years and subsidies for energy companies, more than the Bush administration said it wanted. Nevertheless the White House strongly endorsed the measure.

White House endorses bill
"This is a comprehensive piece of legislation, and it does address one of the fundamental problems facing our nation and that is that we are growing more dependent on foreign sources of energy," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan.

The House measure must be reconciled with the Senate's energy bill before it can be signed into law. The Senate Energy Committee is expected to finish writing its energy bill in May, followed by a vote in the full Senate.

Slide show   The Arctic debate View perspectives from the debate over the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. more photos

The House version of the bill has come under attack from Democrats, who say it would funnel billions of dollars to highly profitable energy companies while doing little to promote conservation or ease gasoline prices.

The bill’s sponsors argue that oil from Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, as much as a million barrels a day, will be needed to help curtail the country’s growing dependence on oil imports. Opponents argued the oil wouldn’t be available for a decade and even then at levels that would not significantly affect oil prices or imports.

Development of the Alaska refuge has been a contentious issue for nearly a decade. Environmentalists fear a spider web of drilling platforms and pipelines would harm the area’s polar bears, caribou, migrating birds and other wildlife.

Senate Democrats have pledged to filibuster any energy bill that would open the refuge to oil companies. An amendment to strip the Alaska refuge provision from the House energy bill failed Wednesday night 231-200.

Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., who offered the ANWR amendment, noted Wednesday that the bill does nothing to improve the fuel economy of automobiles, which he said use 70 percent of the country’s oil, and that it was wrong “to then turn to the wilderness areas and say we need energy.”

An attempt to require automakers to increase fuel economy to a fleet average of 33 miles per gallon over the next decade was defeated 254-177.

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