The outcome of a political stalemate in Congress will determine if renewable energy and energy efficiency tax credits will be extended or will expire at the end of this year. The vote on this bill will be as soon as tomorrow and as we are hearing, it actually is in danger of not passing. We encourage you to contact your congressperson regarding your feelings on H.R. 5984. Find your member's information at http://www.house.gov.

Two updates:

1. The House Rules Committee has taken testimony on all of the amendments and is prepared, but hasn't yet scheduled a meeting to vote on the Rule for consideration of the energy bills. It is still possible for the House to take up the energy bills later today.

2. About the Udall RPS, the today's revised version can be found here (PDF warning). A couple of notes: Municipal solid waste is not included as an eligible renewable resource. 25 states have municipal solid waste to energy plants. Among these are 12 of the states that have RPS and that include municipal solid waste energy plants in their RPS. MSW is controversial among those who consider themselves among the environmental community. Readers can help their Members by informing them if they have an opinion about the current amendment.

As mentioned in our previous update, Dave Roberts has a nice writeup over at the Gristmill on the national RPS here.

We continue to beseech TOD Readers to inform their Members about their particular recommendations for voting for or against amendments and/or the bill, especially the adopting of a national Renewable Portfolio Standard. The Capitol Hill Switchboard is 202-225-3121--it is a good idea to know your Member's name or your zip code (all nine digits) when calling--Members only want to hear from their constituents.

Our previous posts on the topic (which contain links to legislation and proposed amendments) can be found here and here.

UPDATE: Text of the bill H.R. 969 -- T.Udall-Platts RPS can be downloaded using the search engine on the House website: www.house.gov. There is a deadline of 5pm 8/1 for Members to submit amendments to the Rules Committee for the Energy Bill. Any amendment filed MAY differ from the text of bills as introduced.

Amendments to the Energy bill have to be approved by the Rules Committee for floor votes (9 to 5 ratio of Speaker-appointed Democratic to Republican members). It will meet on Thursday. Links to approved amendments will be posted at the Rules Committee website. It can be accessed through the House home page at www.house.gov .

Oil Drum readers are encouraged to peruse recent coverage by CQ Today and EandENews (included below the fold) concerning the contents and status of elements in the bill and voice their reactions to, and analysis of, the legislation in this thread.

Under the fold are links to the actual text of the two bills - an energy bill and a tax bill. These two bills may well be combined into one bill by the House Rules Committee for debate and consideration this Friday.

I can promise you that there will be congressional staffers reading this thread. Therefore please keep it on point, off topic comments will be deleted. I have received emails from staffers who were impressed with our last effort, by the way.

Readers are also encouraged to inform their Members about their recommendations for voting for or against the bill. Two issues of continuing controversy and vote counting are raising CAFÉ standards and adopting a national Renewable Portfolio Standard. The Capitol Hill Switchboard is 202-225-3121--it is a good idea to know your Member's name or your zip code (all nine digits) when calling--Members only want to hear from their constituents.

I have some homework for the readers of TOD, if you all are up for it. We need many pairs of eyes and excellent minds to contribute to a project that could be important for our democratic Republic.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi has more influence over what will make it into the House Energy Bill than any other Member. Under House procedure, the Rules Committee has the job of taking all of the energy-related bills approved by the various committees that have some jurisdiction over energy and combining them into one bill -- hundreds, if not thousands of pages with no time to consider the interaction of the pieces and parts.

A draft Energy bill will be released at a news conference perhaps on a coming Friday afternoon--we're not exactly sure when. By close of business the following Monday or Tuesday, proposed amendments to the bill have to be drafted into legislative language by Legislative Counsel and submitted by Members to the Rules Committee.

The next day or so after that, the Rules Committee will meet to consider which amendments are "in order" and will be allowed to have a 10 minute debate and a vote on the Floor. Any proposed amendments have to be "germane" -- the non-partisan Parliamentarian's office has to declare the amendment is related to narrowing or changing a specific provision already in the bill. If it's not related to something already in the bill, it's not germane. The Rules Committee is stacked with Members in a 9 to 5 ratio of Democratic Majority to Republican Minority. The Democrats are loyal to the Speaker, Republicans to Boehner, as it usually goes. So amendments that are politically undesirable to the Speaker and the Majority can also be denied a Floor vote.

Bottom Line -- There's a lot to do, lots of rules to follow and little time to do it. What The Oil Drum folks can do to help can be found under the fold.