EEE会議（米国の新エネルギー法案審議状況）................................................................2003.10.1

米国では、ブッシュ政権の目玉政策とも言うべき新エネルギー法案の議会審議が相変
わらず難航しており、現在上下両院の合同委員会で妥協案の作成作業が進められてい
ます。同法案推進勢力の中心で、合同委員長のP.ドメニッチ上院議員（共和党、
ニューメキシコ州選出）によれば、電力規制法改正(カリフォルニア停電事件のフォ
ローアップ）、エタノールの消費促進策、アラスカ北極圏石油・ガス田開発とパイプ
ライン建設、企業への減税措置等々の問題点について目下与野党間の意見調整に全力
を挙げているとのことですが、とくに、新しい石炭火力と原子力発電所の建設、国内
石油の増産問題など、最も重要で困難な問題が未解決のままで、今後、大統領選挙へ
向けた動きとも絡んで共和、民主両党の激しい攻防戦が続く模様です。詳細は以下の
New York Timesのとおり。　日本とは国情が違うとはいえ、米国のエネルギー問題を
めぐる政治レベルの議論の深さと広さを我が国の政治家諸侯はもう少し見習ってもら
いたいような気がします。
--KK

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Tough Going as Negotiators Hammer Out Energy Bill
By CARL HULSE


WASHINGTON, Sept. 29 ・Six weeks after the worst blackout in United States
history, Congressional Republicans are entering the difficult final stage of
negotiations over an energy policy that goes far beyond electricity issues
to encompass a host of power initiatives, including new coal and nuclear
plants and stepped-up domestic oil production.

The authors of the developing legislation had hoped to bring a measure
before a joint House-Senate conference committee as early as Friday. But the
chairman of the conference committee, Senator Pete V. Domenici, Republican
of New Mexico, said tonight that negotiators were still thrashing out
agreements on central elements of the bill, like electricity legislation,
increased use of ethanol, aid for an Alaska natural gas pipeline and
industry tax breaks.

"It is pretty tough," Mr. Domenici said, suggesting that the deadline could
slip.

Resolving some of those same issues, which are fraught with political and
regional tensions, has stalled energy legislation before in Congress.
Backers of the legislation are counting on the blackout to provide momentum
to carry it over the finish line and allow the passage of initiatives that
have been on the industry's wish list for years.

"It includes provisions we have sought for a decade now," said Jeff
Eshelman, a spokesman for the Independent Petroleum Association of America.
"In order to get more oil and natural gas for this country, we need access
to land where the resources are located, we need access to capital and we
need regulatory reform."

Critics of the measure say it is being written almost solely by Republicans
with ties to power producers and is skewed too heavily in the industry's
favor.

"Rather than crafting a long-term energy strategy that balances conservation
with supply and alternative sources with investment in the grid, the
Republicans are advancing the energy industry's short-sighted goal of
drilling America first," said Senator Bob Graham, a Florida Democrat and
presidential candidate on the conference committee. "At this point, industry
lobbyists are effectively writing this bill."

With talks continuing over major parts of the bill, the last-minute lobbying
is getting fierce, as those with a stake make one final push to get their
interests protected or make sure their competition does not win some
advantage, a Republican aide said. Major energy legislation comes along
infrequently, with the last broad bill passed a decade ago.

"This is the mother lode," said Frank Maisano, an energy lobbyist working
for producers of a gasoline additive that want some legal protection in the
new bill.

On the crucial issue of electricity, Mr. Domenici and others say negotiators
are still trying to bridge a divide between Southern and Western lawmakers
who do not want utilities forced to join regional transmission groups and
those from the Northeast and Midwest who see such groups as central to
preventing future blackouts.

There are also details to be worked out covering the corn-based gasoline
additive ethanol, which is critical to wining political support for the bill
from farm-state lawmakers. Alaskan lawmakers are pressing for federal aid
for a pipeline project. Negotiators have also not settled on the level of
industry tax incentives to be included in the measure. The White House has
pushed for $8 billion, the Senate $13 billion and the House $18 billion or
more.

Mr. Domenici and his chief co-author, Representative Billy Tauzin,
Republican of Louisiana, have unveiled agreements on new oil and gas
drilling incentives, drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge,
hydrogen power research, clean coal and nuclear projects, among other areas.

Some of those proposals have drawn criticism from Democrats and conservation
groups, and Mr. Domenici and Mr. Tauzin today released revisions in response
to the objections, though many of the changes were technical. The Arctic
drilling and a contentious plan to inventory offshore resources remain in
the proposed measure at this point.

New attention is also being focused on what is not in the emerging
legislation. Lawmakers and interest groups today stepped up pressure on the
negotiators to consider a popular plan to require that renewable fuel
sources like wind, solar and geothermal power account for 10 percent of the
nation's electricity production by 2020. Mr. Tauzin and Mr. Domenici have
said they do not intend to put that requirement in their proposal despite
two votes on the Senate floor in favor of it.

Fifty-three senators sent the two lawmakers a letter today, urging them to
include the fuels requirement. They said the so-called renewable portfolio
standard would reduce the nation's growing reliance on natural gas.