US Congress nudges energy industry

WASHINGTON: The US House of Representatives has made an unprecedented step toward cutting greenhouse gas emissions as it passed an sweeping energy bill that requires utilities to produce 15% of their electricity from wind and solar power. The bill sailed through the House Saturday on a 241-172 vote, despite fervent opposition big oil and gas companies and the White House, which has threatened to veto the measure.

Remarkably, 26 Republicans crossed party lines, voting in support for the initiative. The bill will have to be reconciled with a Senate version, which passed last June, but is more restrained and emphasises slightly different priorities. “Today, the House propelled America’s energy policy into the future,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters.

“This planet is God’s creation; we have a moral responsibility to protect it.” A provision in the bill calls for gradual steps to reduce the role of fossil fuels in generating energy, imposing for the first time a federal standard, under which utilities will have to provide 15% of their electricity from wind, solar and other renewable energy sources by 2020.

This standard, according to congressional officials, will likely result in a reduction carbon dioxide emissions — a major contributor to global warming — by 500 million tonne.

Power plants account for about a third of the carbon dioxide emissions in the United States. The new emphasis on renewable energy would lower natural gas and electricity prices and save more than $100 billion for US consumers, the officials said. If the best provision of both the Senate and House versions of the bill are combined, US greenhouse gas emissions would drop a total of 18% by 2030.