Senate defeats bid to cut US oil imports by 40% by 2025

Senate defeats bid to cut US oil imports by 40% by 2025

Washington (Platts)--16Jun2005


The US Senate narrowly defeated by an 53-to-47 vote an amendment to the energy
bill that would have required a 40% reduction in US imports of foreign oil by
2025. Offered by Sen. Maria Cantwell (Democrat-Washington), the amendment was
intended to replace a provision in the underlying bill that requires the
president to reduce projected oil demand by 1-mil b/d by 2015. The White House
opposed both proposals. 

Specifically, Cantwell's amendment would have required the president to take
action to reduce US oil consumption by 7.64-mil b/d by 2025. The goal would be
to hold imports at about 11.47-mil b/d, slightly less than what the US
imported in 2004 and about 1.58-mil b/d less than what the country has
imported so far in 2005. Several Senators, including many Republicans and
Democrats from auto-manufacturing states, condemned the measure, saying it was
a backdoor effort to raise fuel-economy standards.

Senator Pete Domenici (Republican-New Mexico), who chairs the Senate Energy
Committee and is the main author of the bill, called Cantwell's proposal
risky, saying it would require the nation to increase Corporate Average Fuel
Economy (CAFE) standards to 78.6 mpg for cars and 60.8 mpg for light trucks,
increases of 185% and 174%. 

The Competitive Enterprise Institute, a business group, said Cantwell's
amendment was "unrealistic" and "totally ignores the lethal effect of higher
fuel economy standards, which reduce crashworthiness by restricting vehicle
size and mass." But supporters of Cantwell's amendment said failure to take
decisive action to reduce US dependence on foreign oil was even riskier. "I
just want to get off the foreign oil dependence we have today because our
economy cannot continue to take that risk," Sen. Byron Dorgan (Democrat-North
Dakota) said.

This story was originally published in Platts Global Alert
http://www.globalalert.platts.com

Please visit: www.platts.com

Their coverage of energy matters is extensive!!.