EEE会議（Re:米国の包括的エネルギー法案の審議状況）................................................................03.11.20
米国の包括的エネルギー法案の審議状況については、しばしばご紹介して参りました
ように、上下両院の意見調整が難航し、廃案の惧れもあるというような観測が流れて
おりましたところ、突然昨日(米国時間：１１月１８日）下院では賛成246
票、反対
180
票で可決されました。下院の共和党議員200名に加えて、民主党の46名が賛成に
回った結果のようです。
いままで同法案に対して、石油やエネルギー関係企業だけを不当に優遇し、環境保護
を蔑ろにするものだとして強く反対していた民主党で、どうしてこれだけの数の議員
が突然賛成に回ったのか不思議に思っておりましたが、本日のNew
York
Timesの報道
によれば、個々の議員の選挙区に石炭火力発電所やエタノール工場建設のための財政
援助を認めるとか、その他の名目の補助金を付ける等々の方法で民主党議員を個別撃
破、篭絡したためであるということです。こうした政治手法は、いわゆる
pork-barrel
politics（補助金を分捕って出身業界や地元に利益誘導を図る政治）の
典型的なケースで、今回各議員のペット・プロジェクト（お気に入り計画）や補助
金、減税措置等は全部で1,000ページ以上に達する由。このための減税総額は257億ド
ルで、ブッシュ政権の当初予定額の３倍になるとか。 いかにもアメリカ的という
か、さすが辣腕Domenici上院議員（New
Mexico州選出、共和党の大物で本件エネル
ギー法案の最大の推進者）というべきか、いやはや、なんとも形容の仕様がありませ
ん。
ところで問題は上院の対応ですが、今のところ賛否伯仲で予断を許さない状況のよう
です。ただ、反対派の中心であるはずの民主党院内総務のTom
Daschle上院議員が地
元(S.Dakota州）のエタノール計画の主唱者で、彼自身態度をはっきりさせていない
ため、反対派が法案採択阻止に必要な４０票を確保できるかどうか不明の由。１０年
ぶりの画期的なエネルギー法案として、ブッシュ大統領が就任直後から精力的に推進
してきた同法案がいよいよ大きな山場を迎えたような雲行きです。
いずれにしろ、これは米国内の話で、日本には関係ない（？）ことかもしれません
が、米国のエネルギー政策の実態を知る上では大いに参考になると思いますので、興
味のある方は次の記事をどうぞ。少々長文で恐縮ですが。
--KK
***********************************************
Consensus
on Energy Bill Arose One Project at a Time
By CARL HULSE
Published:
November 19, 2003
WASHINGTON, Nov. 18 - Senator Byron L. Dorgan,
Democrat of North Dakota, has
raised pointed and repeated objections to the
way Republicans met behind
closed doors to assemble the wide-ranging energy
measure that was easily
approved by the House on Tuesday.
Now Mr.
Dorgan and some of his Democratic colleagues in the Senate are
getting behind
the bill, calling its provisions for energy efficiency and
greater use of
corn-based ethanol a step in the right direction. In Mr.
Dorgan's case, the
pot was also sweetened by a last-minute addition of loan
guarantees for a
coal-burning power plant that, under the legislation, is to
"be located in
the Upper Great Plains."
"I am pleased that it is in there, but that is
not what tips the balance for
me," said Mr. Dorgan of the power-plant
provision that he and authors of the
measure said was directed toward North
Dakota.
Mr. Dorgan's endorsement illustrates both the sway of home-state
projects
and the difficulties that opponents of the legislation face in their
uphill
fight to derail it in the Senate after the solid House vote of 246 to
180 to
approve the measure, with 46 Democrats joining 200 Republicans in
support.
The bill is the first major energy legislation in a decade and
touches on
most facets of American power generation and consumption. It seeks
to
encourage greater domestic oil and gas production, promotes the
construction
of new coal and nuclear power plants, provides tax breaks for
fuel
efficiency and takes steps to encourage stability and greater investment
in
the electric grid.
Lawmakers and lobbying groups opposing the bill
say that many members of the
House and Senate have serious reservations about
elements of the proposal
but that those are often outweighed by the abundance
of pet projects,
subsidies and tax breaks spread throughout the measure,
which is more than
1,000 pages long. The Congressional generosity has swollen
the cost of the
tax breaks to an estimated $25.7 billion, more than three
times what the
Bush administration initially advocated.
"Everybody is
looking at it from the perspective of what is in it for them
while this
policy is moving us backwards," said Debbie Boger, a senior
representative
for the Sierra Club.
The extent of the federal largesse is no accident.
The authors cast a wide
net to round up votes for legislation that they knew
would contain elements
many lawmakers would find objectionable. So they made
sure some major
inducements were incorporated, particularly the initiative to
double the
demand for corn-based ethanol, a provision that most farm-state
lawmakers
will find it difficult to vote against.
"We have produced a
bill that is tough to walk away from," said Senator Pete
V. Domenici,
Republican of New Mexico and the lead Senate energy negotiator.
The cost
is causing the administration to wince, but the White House is
backing it,
saying the cost is the price of getting a bill President Bush
has clamored
for since his first days in office. "Even though it went beyond
the scope of
what we proposed, we think the other assets and benefits make
it a strong
bill," said Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham.
Despite objections by some
leading Democrats, the House passed it with votes
to spare as supporters said
it would aid the economy, increase production of
fossil fuels and expand use
of wind, solar and geothermal energy.
But Democrats on the energy
committee attacked it, saying it was a
regressive exercise in corporate
welfare that let some polluters off the
hook.
Approval by the House,
where the Republican leadership exerts tight control,
was always expected.
But in the closely divided Senate, a few Democrats and
Republicans were
threatening to filibuster the measure over the provision
protecting producers
of the gasoline additive MTBE from product defect
lawsuits that have been
filed in New York, California, New Hampshire and
elsewhere.
But
whether the critics can muster the 40 votes needed to block the
legislation
is unclear.
The filibuster would most likely need the support of the
Senate Democratic
leader, Tom Daschle of South Dakota. But he is a main
advocate of the plan
to increase the use of ethanol and on Tuesday said he
had not decided what
to do.
Senator Kent Conrad, Democrat of North
Dakota, said that the measure was
finding wide support among farm and energy
advocates in his home state and
that he would join Mr. Dorgan in backing
it.
Analysts both in and out of Congress continued to sift through the
measure
to pinpoint more subsidies, tax breaks and benefits to certain
industries.
An analysis by the Senate Democratic staff disclosed several,
including a
series of loan guarantees for coal plants in Alaska, Louisiana,
Minnesota
and West Virginia, with no limit on potential federal liability.
The bill
also allows $12 million to be spent on centers at the University
of
Mississippi and the University of Oklahoma for research on
ethanol.
Taxpayers for Common Sense identified a host of home-state
projects,
including four federally backed "greenbond" proposals that would
help build
tourism, shopping and entertainment centers in Syracuse;
Shreveport, La.;
Lakewood, Colo.; and Atlanta.