As the prospects for Congress passing a broad energy bill this year grow dim, Reps. Edward Markey (D-MA) and Randy “Duke” Cunningham (R-CA) last Wednesday introduced separate legislation aimed at bolstering the reliability of the electricity grid and easing run-away energy prices.

The bill, known as the “Efficient Energy through Certified Technologies and Electricity Reliability Act of 2004,” would offer tax incentives to encourage the production and sale of technologically advanced, energy-efficient buildings and equipment that are designed to reduce peak power demand, and diffuse the risk of blackouts and high power prices, the two lawmakers said.

“No one wants a repeat of last summer’s blackout, and this bill would go a long way in preventing future blackouts in the short and long term,” Markey said in a prepared statement. “It would create mandatory, enforceable electricity reliability rules that could be used immediately and establish tax credits for energy efficiency. The energy saved as a result of this bill would ease natural gas prices, prevent power plant pollution and reduce greenhouse gases.”

With energy legislation stalled in the Senate, this bill can deliver on one of the less controversial issues when it comes to energy policy — energy efficiency, said Cunningham. “The aftershocks of the rolling blackouts and outrageously high energy prices are still being felt…I am introducing this bill in an effort to pass a portion of our long-term energy plan that can produce results now,” he noted.

The Markey-Cunningham initiative comes on the heels of a similar bill offered earlier this month by Sens. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), which seeks to boost the security and reliability of the power grid, while cutting back natural gas and electricity prices through a gradual reduction in demand.

The Senate measure (S. 2311), which bears the same name as the House bill, proposes targeted tax incentives and standards for energy efficiency in commercial buildings, both new and retrofitted, that would support energy reduction, the construction of new and retrofitted homes, and the use of more energy efficient appliances.

Snowe and Feinstein estimate their legislation would save American families and business owners $30 billion annually by 2015, and would prevent the waste of more than 3.3 quads of natural gas annually — over 12% of the nation’s total gas use — and produce over a half million new jobs in the U.S. economy.

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