The U.S. Senate last Thursday shot down a bid by Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) to eliminate a Democrat-backed federal requirement included in the omnibus energy bill (S. 517) that electric utilities generate 10% of their electricity using renewable energy fuels, such as solar energy, biomass and wind.

By a vote of 58-40, the Senate rejected an amendment sponsored by Kyl that would have placed the decision to mandate renewable fuels for power production in the hands of individual states, in opposition to a federal renewable energy mandate staked out by Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM).

Republicans have argued that the Democrat federal standard would mandate an “unrealistic level” for use of renewable fuels to generate electricity.

Prior to the vote, Bingaman argued from the Senate floor that the Kyl amendment “would, if adopted, totally eliminate any kind of provision in this bill that would move us toward more use of renewable fuels in the future.” The New Mexico lawmaker went on to say, “We need to diversify our supply of energy in this country.”

Bingaman, chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, noted that 95% of new power generation that is currently under construction is gas-fired.

“That is fine as long as the price of gas stays low, but when the price of gas goes back up like it was 18 months ago, then we are going to see serious repercussions in the utility bills of all consumers,” Bingaman warned.

Bingaman offered a vigorous defense of his renewable energy amendment. “The suggestions that Sen. Kyl and others have made that this is going to drastically increase everyone’s electricity bills, it’s not borne out by the analyses that have been made.”

Bingaman noted than an analysis of the Democrat approach to renewable energy done by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) concludes “that this does not raise energy prices.” The EIA report can be downloaded from the agency’s web site (www.eia.doe.gov).

For his part, Kyl attempted to mimic late night comic David Letterman in giving his “Top 10” reasons why the Senate should adopt his amendment. Among other things, Kyl argued that Bingaman’s plan “is the command economy amendment — a 10% mandate, the Kyl amendment is for state choice.”

The Arizona lawmaker also criticized the Bingaman amendment for being “very costly.” According to Kyl, the Bingaman amendment involves a price tag of $88 billion over 15 years, and then $12 billion each year after that, “paid for by the electric consumers.”

Kyl also lambasted the Bingaman approach by questioning the reliability of renewables. “If the sun doesn’t shine, if the wind doesn’t blow, if the water doesn’t flow, you don’t get energy, but you do out of coal and gas and nuclear, which are all plentiful.”

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