Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina is planning to revive the failed energy debate in the Senate. After abandoning cap and trade legislation earlier this year after working with Democrats for months, Graham announced Thursday he is revisiting the topic.
Graham’s bill, officially introduced back in September, is competing with another bipartisan compromise deal sponsored by Democratic Sen. Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico and Republican Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas. But according to Graham, that bill does a disservice to nuclear energy.
“The RES introduced by Senators Bingaman and Brownback short-changes nuclear power, a safe reliable form of clean energy,” said Graham in a statement. “It is essential that nuclear power by fully embraced in any clean energy standard.”
He continued: “It is long overdue for our country to experience a renaissance in nuclear energy. It will lead to the creation of millions of new jobs here in the United States and help make our nation more energy independent.”
Thus, unlike the Bingaman-Brownback bill, Graham’s is much more nuclear-energy focused – something he has always been a major proponent of. It includes a clean-energy standard, which is a mandate for utility companies to use a certain percentage of clean energy in their electricity. The major difference between the two bills is that Graham’s version includes nuclear power under the “clean energy” umbrella.
The umbrella also includes sources like biomass, qualified hydropower, wind, solar and ocean energy.
The bill includes a myriad of other provisions dealing with coal and fossil fuels, and incentives for converting to clean energy, including incentives for the retirement of old coal plants. Clean coal, however, will count as a form of clean energy.
The clean energy standard starts out with a 13 percent target in 2013. By 2020, the goal is for utility companies to be using clean energy at a 20 percent rate, increasing 5 percent every five years thereafter.
Another key provision is an allowance for companies to use revenues not raised by meeting the standards to help offset future higher costs and implement the use of more clean energy technology. In other words, instead of companies being hit with massive fines for not meeting the standards because staying with fossil fuels in relatively much cheaper, companies can keep their profits to help pay for the cost of converting to clean technology.
Small electricity producers are exempt from the mandate.
“As a nation, we should set reasonable clean energy standards which recognizes and rewards technologies that help our nation achieve energy independence. When it comes to clean energy I have an ‘all of the above’ approach,” said Graham, before touting his bill as being one that create jobs, create a cleaner environment and make the U.S. less dependent on foreign oil.
Graham’s announcement came the same day Sens. John Kerry, Massachusetts Democrat, and Joe Lieberman, Connecticut independent, promised a “huge energy debate” early next year.
“A lot of us – and the Democrats are trying to involve some Republicans – really want to do an energy bill,” said Lieberman in an interview with The Hill newspaper. “Energy independence will be a cornerstone of that.”
Up until Graham withdrew from negotiations for a comprehensive energy bill this past summer, he, Kerry and Lieberman had formed a powerful alliance on Capitol Hill to reach a deal in the Senate. But the triumvirate fell apart when it became clear the White House was less non-committal on the issue and the polarized Senate would inevitably fail to reach a deal.
When asked why an energy bill would have a greater chance of passing in a Republican-controlled House and divided Senate next year, a spokesperson for Graham said, “There is near universal agreement that our nation must become more energy independent…we must begin the process of becoming energy independent as soon as possible.”