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Senate adds eco-friendly provisions to energy bill

The Senate put a surprisingly green cast on the energy bill yesterday, approving an amendment that would require power companies to generate 10 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2020, and another that would direct $14 billion in tax incentives to alternative fuels and energy efficiency. Another green-friendly amendment, from Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), would have established a goal to reduce imports of foreign oil by 40 percent in 20 years, but it lost in a 53 to 47 vote amidst Republican objections that it was just too dang ambitious. Eco-related fights over amendments on global warming, offshore oil drilling, and siting for liquefied-natural-gas terminals will take place in coming days. The unexpected environmental friendliness of the Senate bill is widely seen as a response to the aggressive fossil-fuel friendliness of the House version. "If it comes out in the middle" during House-Senate conference committee negotiations, said Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), "it might be all right." Of course, with President Bush largely favoring the House approach, the deck may be stacked against the Senate greens ...