The US House of Representatives has taken an unprecedented step toward cutting greenhouse gas emissions as it passed a bill requiring utility companies to produce 15 percent of their electricity from wind and solar power.
The bill sailed through the House on Saturday on a 241-172 vote, despite fervent opposition from big oil and gas companies and the White House, which has threatened to veto the measure.
"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."
Twenty-six Republicans crossed party lines to vote for the initiative.
The bill will have to be reconciled with a Senate version, which was passed in June but is more restrained and emphasizes slightly different priorities.
A provision in the bill calls for gradual steps to reduce the role of fossil fuels in generating energy, imposing a federal standard for the first time.
The bill would require that utilities provide 15 percent of their electricity from wind, solar and other renewable energy sources by 2020, compared to the present 6.1 percent, government statistics show.
The new standard will likely result in a reduction of carbon dioxide emissions -- a major contributor to global warming -- by 500 million tonnes, congressional officials said.
Power plants account for about a third of the carbon dioxide emissions in the US.
The new emphasis on renewable energy would lower natural gas and electricity prices and save more than US$100 billion for US consumers, the officials said.
If the best provisions of both the Senate and House versions of the bill were combined, US greenhouse gas emissions would drop 18 percent by 2030, an analysis by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy said.
The Senate energy efficiency package, which includes new car fuel efficiency standards, is projected to reduce US demand for oil by 5.3 million barrels a day in 2030 -- 32 percent of oil and other liquid fuel imports projected for that year.
"The passage of this legislation is a major leap forward in our fight against global warming," Democratic Representative Chris Van Hollen said.
"In a world threatened by climate change, increasing costs and decreasing supply, diversifying our energy mix with clean, homegrown renewables is good policy," he said.
The House also repealed about US$16 billion in tax breaks granted by US President George W. Bush's administration to the oil industry two years ago, mandating that the resulting tax revenues be used to pay for renewable energy research.
That has sparked a sharp response from the oil and gas industry as well as their Republican allies, setting the stage for a political showdown in the fall.
The American Petroleum Institute, a lobby that represents about 400 leading oil and gas corporations, issued a statement calling the House measure "the wrong prescription" because "it is premised on the false idea the nation must choose between alternatives and oil and natural gas."
The bill, the group warned, would discourage energy production and threaten job creation and living standards.
The White House plunged into the fray on Friday, firing off a terse two-page letter to Congress threatening a presidential veto and arguing against raising taxes.
The House and Senate bills, the White House's Office of Management and Budget said, "will result in less domestic oil and gas production, higher taxes to disadvantage a single targeted industry."
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not