Senate Approves Energy Bill

The U.S. Senate last night approved a major increase in auto mileage standards as part of a broad energy bill the President has indicated he will sign.

The Senate voted 86-8 for the bill, which also vastly expands biofuels production and contains a suite of building- and appliance-efficiency measures. The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to pass the bill easily next week.

Last night's easy, bipartisan approval came only after Senate Democrats dropped increased taxes on large oil companies, as well as a requirement that utilities supply escalating amounts of power from renewable sources.

These provisions faced GOP filibusters and a White House veto threat. One Democrat, Debbie Stabenow (Mich.), opposed the measure, along with seven Republicans. Six lawmakers did not vote, including the four Democratic senators running for President, as well as GOP presidential hopeful John McCain (Ariz.).

The legislation will raise corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standards for cars and SUV’s to an average of 35 miles per gallon by 2020, a roughly 40 percent increase that supporters say will reduce U.S. oil consumption by 1.1 million barrels per day when phased in fully.

The CAFE deal, a product of months of negotiations, capped a years-long effort to boost standards that have been largely stuck for decades. Current CAFE standards for cars are 27.5 miles per gallon (mpg) and 22.2 mpg for light trucks and SUV's.

Contact Deidra Ciriello.

Trade Group Raises Compliance Concerns
Under Senate Climate Bill

The National Foreign Trade Council, a business group of more than 300 companies that advocates open trade, recently released a report that raised questions regarding World Trade Organization (WTO) rules compliance under S. 2191, America’s Climate Security Act of 2007.

The international provisions of the bill allow the President to require importers of energy-intensive manufactured products to submit equal allowances to similar domestic products. 

Their report argues that this is not WTO compliant for two reasons:

• First, the restriction of imported goods that cause emissions in foreign countries rather than the United States suggests discrimination among products based on non-product related processs and production methods (PPM), which WTO law prohibits.
• Second, the bill would violate the 1994 General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in the way the bill defines “covered goods” —based on their “close relation” to domestic goods—whose production costs will increase under the cap and trade program, and thus would result in applying internal regulations to imported products to protect domestic goods. 

Proponents of the legislation argue that the international provisions were designed to give the U.S. negotiation leverage with foreign countries to impose their own greenhouse gas controls, and that the GATT exempts cases where trade restrictions will protect public health and natural resources. 

Environment and Public Works Committee member Senator Max Baucus (D-Mont.) promised to hold hearing on this issue in the Finance Committee, which he chairs, tentatively on December 20. 

Contact Jessica Hogle.

Industry Calls on Congress to Address
Environmental Permitting Issue

A broad coalition of trade associations sent a letter to Members of Congress calling for an exemption of CO2 and all other greenhouse gases from Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) permitting authority under CAA section 165. 

Industry is concerned that should the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency decide to regulate CO2 in vehicles and fuels, PSD will immediately be triggered for all stationary sources that meet the 100/250 ton-per-year “major” source threshold.

Major sources include any source with the potential to emit 250 tons per year of an air pollutant. Consequently, most large buildings or businesses that generate or use CO2 naturally as a component of its operations may exceed the 250-ton-per-year threshold for CO2 emissions.

Once a source is classified as a “major” source for one pollutant, it is considered a major source for all other regulated pollutants under the CAA. As a result, the hundreds of thousands of covered sources would have to install BACT not only for CO2, but also potentially for nitrous oxide, particulate matter, lead, mercury, sulfur dioxide, and other pollutants prior to any new construction.

Industry is therefore urging Congress to intervene by exempting CO2 from PSD permitting authority. A similar CAA “savings clause” was included in H.R. 6, the House energy bill, to ensure that the regulation of CO2 required by the renewable fuels standard in the bill does not trigger costly, onerous stationary source control requirements for hundreds of thousands of buildings throughout the United States.

Contact Andy O'Hare.

Panel Criticizes Environmental Agency for Lead Consideration

During a meeting of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Clean Air Science Advisory Committee (CASAC) on Wednesday, sharp criticisms were lobbed at the agency by panel members for its consideration to revoke existing National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for lead.

The criticisms arose during the panel’s meeting to discuss the December 5 release of an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on the lead standard.

As reported last week in the NACA Washington Briefing newsletter, the agency was seeking comment via the Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on the adequacy of current lead NAAQS; potential revisions to the standard; and questions raised about maintaining a NAAQS for lead.

Several panel members denounced suggestions raised within the advance notice by indicating that the suggestions would fail to meet the very goals the agency was seeking.

The EPA is not expected to modify the notice and intends to publish it in the Federal Register on Monday.

The CASAC will meet in January 2008 to suggest possible improvements in the process of setting air quality standards.

Contact Tyrone P. Wilson.

Joint Panel Grills Labor Board on Recent Rulings

The U.S. House Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions and the Senate Employment and Workplace Safety yesterday held a joint hearing to review recent decisions by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). 

The witness panel featured Robert J. Battista, Chairman of the NLRB.

The hearing focused in part on the NLRB decision in Dana Corp., 351 NLRB No. 28 (September 29, 2007), where the Board modified its recognition-bar doctrine and held that an employer’s voluntary recognition of a labor organization does not bar a decertification or rival union petition that is filed within 45 days of unit employees’ receiving notice of the voluntary recognition. Democrats used the hearing to condemn Dana and other recent NLRB decisions as an erosion of worker rights.

Reps. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon (R-Calif.) and John Kline (R-Mn.), senior Republicans on the Education and Labor Committee and Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions Subcommittee, issued a joint statement, commenting:  “The National Labor Relations Act sets up the Board as an independent, judicially-empowered arbiter of disputes.  To call sitting Board members before Congress and demand that they justify their rulings, many of which involve pending cases, defies the tenets of jurisprudence and the obligations of appropriate exercise of power.”

The joint hearing was coincident to an AFL-CIO hosted two day conference, “Going Global: Organizing, Recognition and Union Rights,” which attracted more than 200 of the world’s top union leaders. The conference was aimed at bolstering support for unions worldwide.

Contact: Robert Sullivan.

Administration Issues Interim Final Rule on Hours of Service

On Tuesday, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMSCA) issued an interim final rule (IFR) retaining two provisions of the federal driver’s hours of service (HOS) regulations that were vacated by the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

The court’s July 24 decision struck down the 11-hour daily maximum driving time and the 34-hour restart provisions, because the methodology for their implementation had not been subject to notice and comment.

This week’s action by FMSCA was in response to new data that showed the vacated provisions have actually helped to improve highway safety.

The IFR maintains the status quo for the Federal drivers’ HOS regulations while FMCSA hears public comment for 60 days.

Contact: Kevin Walgenbach.

Mark Your Calendar for the Concrete Congressional Trade Show

NACA and the PCA Regional Promotion Groups will conduct a Congressional Concrete Trade Show on June 3 and 4 in the Cannon Caucus Room on Capitol Hill. 

The purpose of the event  is to educate members of Congress and their staff members on the uses and benefits of the various applications of concrete; its positive environmental impacts; and how it affects the local economy. 

 The Congressional Cement Caucus is sponsoring this event.  Additional information will be forthcoming, so please mark your calendar and plan to attend this important event.

Contact John Sullivan, David Hubbard or Jessica Hogle.

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