Congressional Research Service Reports - 61 Matching Results

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Energy Efficiency: Key to Sustainable Energy Use: This report includes the debate in the 105th Congress over the funding and direction of energy efficiency programs involves the FY1999 spending request, the Administration's Climate Change Technology Initiative (CCTI), and proposals for restructuring the electricity industry.
Renewable Energy: Key to Sustainable Energy Supply: Debate in the 106th Congress over the funding and direction of renewable energy programs will likely focus on the FY2000 spending request, the Administration's Climate Change Technology Initiative (CCTI), and proposals for restructuring the electricity industry. Energy security, a major driver of federal energy efficiency programs in the past, is now somewhat less of an issue. Although the Persian Gulf remains volatile and oil imports make up one-fifth of the balance of trade deficit, low oil prices and uninterrupted supply have dampened concern about the potential for import disruptions.
The Weatherization Assistance Program: A Fact Sheet: The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Weatherization Assistance PRogram (WAP) is one of the largest energy conservation programs in the nation. The DOE program is implemented in a 50 states, the District of Columbia and Native American Tribes. It weatherizes an average of 70,000 dwellings per year. The program strives to increase the energy efficiency of dwellings occupied by low-income persons in order to reduce their energy consumption and lower their fuel bills. It targets vulnerable groups including the elderly, people with disabilities, and families with children.
Amtrak and Energy Conservation: Background and Selected Public Policy Issues: A rationale for federal financial support to Amtrak has been that rail service conserves energy, compared to other forms of intercity passenger transportation. The numbers discussed in this report suggest that the rationale might not be valid with regard to autos and buses. The report discusses some public policy implications that could follow from that conclusion.
Amtrak and Energy Conservation in Intercity Passenger Transportation: A rationale for federal financial support to Amtrak has been that rail service conserves energy, compared to other forms of intercity passenger transportation. The numbers presented in this report suggest that the rationale might not be valid with regard to some alternative modes of transportation, and the report discusses some public policy implications that could follow from that conclusion.
Energy Efficiency: A New National Outlook?: In 1992, the Nation spent $522 billion for energy ($1996 constant), while energy efficiency and conservation measures were saving the economy about $275 billion per year. Energy is conserved when technical means are employed to improve efficiency or to reduce energy waste. In 1996 constant dollars, conservation research and development (R&D) funding declined from $698 million in FY1979 to $198 million in FY1988 and then climbed to $486 million in FY1994, 31% below the FY1979 peak.
Appropriations for FY2000: Energy and Water Development: This report summarizes the current legislative status of the bill, its scope, major issues, funding levels, and related legislative activity.
Renewable Energy and Electricity Restructuring: Several electricity industry restructuring bills propose to eliminate the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA), which has been key to the growth of renewable power facilities. Bills intended to ensure a continuing role for renewable energy sources have been introduced in the 106th Congress that include some combination of a renewable energy portfolio standard (RPS),
World Solar Summit: Launching the World Renewable Energy Program: The World Solar Summit and proposed World Solar Program 1996-2005 address energy problems through increased use of renewable energy technologies. The World Solar Commission will host the World Solar Summit in Harare, Zimbabwe, on September 16 and 17, 1996, and it will direct the World Solar Program 1996-2005. At the Summit, the Commission is expected to adopt a World Plan ofAction and a number of Strategic Projects. The proposed World Plan of Action includes a selection of high-priority renewable energy projects at the national or regional level to be implemented between 1996 and 2005.
Industrial Energy Intensiveness and Energy Costs in the Context of Climate Change Policy: No Description Available.
DOE Security: Protecting Nuclear Material and Information: Congress is focusing on problems with security at the Department of Energy’s (DOE) national security facilities, especially the nuclear weapon laboratories. Problems include espionage from within the labs and protection of nuclear material and facilities from outside attack. This report describes the main components of DOE’s security system and reviews current efforts to address shortcomings.
Fossil Energy Research and Development: Whither Coal?: This report discusses Fossil Energy Research and Development: Whither Coal.
Implementation of the Reformulated Gasoline Program: The Clean Air Act (CAA) was amended in 1990 requiring the sale of cleaner-burning reformulated gasoline (RFG) in the nine worst nonattainment areas. Since the program began on January 1, 1995, legislation has been introduced to delay or repeal the requirement. RFG must contain oxygenates and should result in a 15 percent reduction of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and air toxins. While the CAA was being debated, affected parties (e.g., automobile manufacturers, oil industry, and agricultural interests) did not agree on whether and how gasoline should be reformulated.
World Oil Production After Year 2000: Business As Usual or Crises?: Deficient productive capacity has not yet caused an oil crisis, but that does not mean it never will. Significant increases in world oil demand will have to be met primarily from Persian Gulf supplies. This is a region with a history of wars, illegal occupations, soups, revolutions, sabotage, terrorism, and oil embargoes. To these possibilities may be added growing Islamist movements with various antipathies to the West. If oil production were constrained, oil prices could rise abruptly along with adverse world economic repercussions. If the IEA and EIA are correct on the demand side, deficient world oil productive capacity could cause an oil crisis within 15 years and political disruptions in Saudi Arabia could cause one sooner. However, if the increases in world oil demand were more moderate, and there is long-term relative peace in the Middle East, with increasing foreign participation in upstream oil activities, a business as usual world oil demand and supply situation would be a likely scenario for much of the next century.
Alternative Transportation Fuels and Clean Gasoline: Background and Regulatory Issues: This report discusses legislative initiatives underway to tighten emission standards, produce cleaner cars, and develop alternative fuels, such as clean gasoline, natural gas, ethanol, and electricity. Specifically, the report focuses on the reformulate gasoline (RFG) program and the Energy Policy Act of 1992.
Leaking Underground Storage Tank Trust Fund (LUST): The Leaking Underground Storage Tank (LUST) Trust Fund provides money under Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)- state cooperative agreements to pay cleanup and related costs involving leaking petroleum tanks if no financially solvent owners can be found, or if the owner or operator refuses or is unable to comply with an urgent corrective order. Both EPA and the states use trust fund monies to oversee and enforce LUST corrective actions. Primary financing for the trust fund comes from a 0.1 cent per gallon tax on motor fuels. The tax expired December 31, 1995, but was reinstated by the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 (P.L. 105-34) for the period October 1, 1997, through March 31, 2005.
Market-Based Environmental Management: Issues in Implementation: Increasingly, efforts to protect integral features of the natural environment that are essential to human well being face a double challenge. First, the magnitude of some conventional and emerging threats to environmental quality is growing, despite solid progress in controlling some causes. This is particularly the concern on a global scale in terms of atmospheric changes and loss of biological diversity. Second, easily-implemented uniform control methods using feasible technologies or other direct regulatory approaches are already in place for many pollution and resource management problems in the United States. Additional progress with so-called command and control policies can be expensive and disruptive, and thus counter productive to overall economic well being. This type of dilemma is common where environmental deterioration results from diffuse and complex causes inherent in technically-advanced high-consumption industrial societies such as the U.S. Solutions to these types of environmental problems are complicated by the diffuse benefits which obscures the net gains of additional controls that have concentrated and highly visible costs. Given this double bind, many policy analysts and academics have for years advocated more cost-effective and flexible approaches relying on market forces to further some environmental management objectives. Although market-based theory and practical environmental policy are still far apart, the incremental approach to environmental policymaking since the late seventies has resulted in some market-type innovations within traditional regulatory frameworks at all levels of government. The most prominent examples are the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) air emissions trading program and the recently enacted sulfur dioxide allowance trading program under the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments.
Department of Energy: Programs and Reorganization Proposals: This report analyzes the effect of proposed legislation on the nuclear weapons program; on the original mission of the department- enhancing energy security; and on DOE's energy R&D, basic research and environmental restoration programs.
The Naval Petroleum Reserves: Proposed Sale and Issues: The Naval Petroleum Reserves (NPR)--consisting of the large Elk Hills Field in California and smaller fields at Buena Vista Hills (CA) and Teapot Dome (WY)--were established in the early 1900s. Congress authorized full production of the NPR in 1976. Production at Elk Hills, the most significant field, peaked at 181,000 barrels per day (b/d) in 1981; currently, it is 65,000 b/d. The Clinton Administration earmarked the NPR for sale in its FY1996 budget, estimating its gross value at $2.6 billion.
The Tax Treatment of Alternative Transportation Fuels: Historically, federal energy policy, including energy tax policy, promoted the development of oil and gas at the expense of alternative fuels and nonconventional forms of energy. Beginning in the 1970s, there was a shift in the focus of energy tax policy away from oil and gas toward energy conservation and toward the development of alternative fuels and nonconventional forms of energy.
Appropriations for FY1999: Energy and Water Development: This report is a guide to one of the 13 regular appropriations bills that Congress passes each year. It is designed to supplement the information provided by the House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees on Energy and Water Development Appropriations. It summarizes the current legislative status on the bill, its scope, major issues, funding levels, and related legislative activity. The report lists the key CRS staff relevant to the issues covered and related CRS products.
Transportation of Spent Nuclear Fuel: No Description Available.
Transportation Fuel Taxes, Legislative Issues, and the Transportation Equity Act: In reauthorizing federal surface transportation programs this year (P .L 105-178), Congress has modified the attributes of some of the transportation fuel excise taxes that fluid. those programs and others. Since the federal government first started taxing transportation fuels, the issue of how the revenues should be used has played a major role in determining whether and which transportation fuels should be taxed; and by how much. Congress changed several aspects of transportation fuel taxation in 1997, most notably redirecting revenues from deficit reduction to the trust funds established for transportation-related projects This report provides the context for federal excise taxes on transportation fuels describes recent developments, and outlines the structure of those taxes on the major fuels with respect to levels, disposition of revenues, effective dates, and expiration dates. This report will be updated as legislative activity warrants.
Transportation Fuel Taxes Early in the 105th Congress: The 105th Congress has reinstated for about half a year the federal excise taxes on fuel used by noncommercial aviation. This follows a similar move by the 104th Congress on aviation fuel taxes, and actions pertaining to the tax on diesel fuel used in recreational motorboats, and to the fuel tax credits given to first purchasers of diesel-powered cars and light trucks. The 104th Congress also debated repeal of the increase of 4.3 cents per gallon in transportation fuel taxes imposed by the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 (OBRA93) (P.L. 103-66), but no new law resulted.
Gasoline Excise Tax - Historical Revenues: Fact Sheet: This report provides a fact sheet about the Gasoline Excise Tax - Historical Revenues. The gas tax was regarded as a user tax where the federal government has imposed a gasoline excise tax with the passage of the revenue act in 1932.
Electric Power and the Year 2000 Computer Problem: The North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) at the request of the Department of Energy is coordinating an effort to minimize the vulnerability of the nation's electric utility system to disruption resulting from computer failures as the date changes to January 1, 2000, the so-called Y2K computer problem. NERC now believes that the electric power industry would be able to reliably meet demand during the transition from 1999 to 2000 with the systems that are now Y2K ready. Nevertheless, at least 30% of the nation's utilities and 35% of the nation's nuclear power plants are not now expected to be Y2K ready until the last half of 1999.
Department of Energy: Programs and Reorganization Proposals: This report, a revision of an earlier CRS review of DOE programs, consists of an introductory discussion of the agency and its mission as a whole, and a description of its major programs as independent entities. Many of DOE's original energy-related missions have disappeared or changed radically. In addition, with the end of the Cold War, DOE's nuclear weapons-related programs, almost two-thirds of the total budget, are undergoing modification. However, regardless of the outcome of the debate on DOE's future, many of its present functions will continue in one location or another.
Auburn Dam on the American River: Fact Sheet: For more than 30 years, Congress has debated constructing a dam on the American River near Auburn, California. The Army Corps of Engineers recently identified three alternatives for flood control, with the Division office's preferred plan calling for construction of a 508-foot-high detention dam. Currently, two bills address the issue: H.R. 3270 supports construction of the dam, while H.R. 2951 opposes construction of any structure on the North Fork of the American River.
Oil Imports: An Overview and Update of Economic and Security Effects: No Description Available.
MTBE in Gasoline: Clean Air and Drinking Water Issues: No Description Available.
Restructuring DOE and Its Laboratories: Issues in the 105th Congress: Interest in restructuring (including eliminating) the Department of Energy (DOE) and its laboratories has increased since the end of the Cold War, and especially since the beginning of the 104th Congress.
Appropriations for FY2000: Energy and Water Development: This report discusses the Energy and Water Development FY2000 appropriations bill, which includes funding for civil projects of the Army Corps of Engineers, the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Reclamation (BuRec), most of the Department of Energy (DOE), and a number of independent agencies.
Electric Utility Restructuring: Overview of Basic Policy Questions: Proposals to increase competition in the electric utility industry involve segmenting electric functions (generation, transmission, distribution) that are currently integrated (or bundled) in most cases (both in terms of corporate and rate structures). This report identifies five basic issues this effort raises for the Congress to consider as the debate on restructuring proceeds.
DOE Environmental Technology Department - A Fact Sheet: The Department of Energy (DOE) established the Office of Technology Development in 1989 to develop faster and less expensive technical solutions to the Department's widespread environmental problems, primarily the legacy of decades of nuclear weapons production. Without new environmental technologies, DOE contends, some types of contamination may prove impossible to clean up. The Office of Technology Development, which is part of DOE's Environmental Management Program (EM), manages all stages of the development of new environmental restoration and waste management technologies, from basic research and development through final testing, demonstration and evaluation.
Electricity Restructuring: Comparison of S.1401, H.R. 655, H.R. 1230, S. 722, H.R. 1960, and S. 2287: Once considered the nation's most regulated industry, the electric utility industry is evolving into a more competitive environment. At the current time, the focus of this development is the generating sector, where the advent of new generating technologies, such as gas-fired combined cycle, has lowered both entry barriers to competitors of traditional utilities and lowered the marginal costs of those competitors below those of some traditional utilities. This technological advance has been combined with legislative initiatives, such as the Energy Policy Act of 1992 (EPACT), to encourage the introduction of competitive forces into the electric generating sector. The questions now are whether further legislative action is desirable to encourage competition in the electric utility sector and how the transition between a comprehensive regulatory regime to a more competitive electric utility sector can be made with the least amount of economic and service disruption.
The Department of Energy's FY1996 Budget: This issue brief describes the FY1996 request for DOE's major programs, its implications, and congressional action on the DOE budget. Table 1 at the end of the issue brief highlights the FY1996 DOE budget request.
Alternative Transportation Fuels: Oil Import, Highway Tax, and Implementation Issues: This report discusses three major pieces of legislation designed to, among other objectives, foster the development, introduction, and diffusion of alternative nonpetroleum fuels into the U.S. transportation sector. These three pieces of legislation are the Alternative Motor Fuels Act of 1988, the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, and the Energy Policy Act of 1992.
Nuclear Weapons Production Complex: Environmental Compliance and Waste Management: The aging nuclear weapons production complex, managed by the Department of Energy (DOE), faces enormous environmental and waste management problems. Several hundred billion dollars may be needed to clean up leaking waste pits, groundwater contamination, growing accumulations of radioactive waste, and uncontrolled liquid discharges at DOE facilities. DOE's cleanup program is carried out by the Office of Environmental Management (EM). Cleanup funding escalated rapidly after the end of the Cold War, although it has plateaued at about $6 billion per year under the Clinton Administration.
The Department of Energy's FY1998 Budget: This issue brief describes the FY1998 request for DOE's major programs, its implications, and congressional action on the DOE budget. Table 1 at the end of the issue brief highlights the FY1998 DOE budget request. House and Senate marks and the final budget enacted will be included in revised versions as the appropriations bills move through the Congress.
Electricity Restructuring Background: Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 (PUHCA): This report provides background information on PUHCA, including its history and impact. It also discusses how PUHCA reform fits into the current electric utility industry restructuring debate. This report will be updated as events warrant. For related information on electricity restructuring, see the CRS Electronic Briefing Book.
Alternative Transportation Fuels and Vehicles: Energy, Environment, and Development Issues: This report reviews several issues relating to alternative fuels and vehicles, mainly to combat dependence on petroleum imports and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The report discusses the advantages and drawbacks of various alternative fuels and vehicles, as well as related legislation.
Appropriations for FY1999: Energy and Water Development: Appropriations are one part of a complex federal budget process that includes budget resolutions, appropriations (regular, supplemental, and continuing) bills, rescissions, and budget reconciliation bills. This report is a guide to one of the 13 regular appropriations bills that Congress passes each year. It is designed to supplement the information provided by the House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees on Energy and Water Development Appropriations.
Electricity Restructuring Background: The Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 and the Energy Policy Act of 1992: The Energy Policy Act of 1992 (EPACT) increased competition in the electric generating sector by creating new entities that can generate and sell electricity at wholesale without being regulated as utilities under PUHCA. PURPA began to shift more regulatory responsibilities to the federal government, and EPACT continued that shift away from the states by creating new options for utilities and regulators to meet electricity demand.
Electric Utility Restructuring: Overview of Basic Policy Questions: Proposals to increase competition in the electric utility industry involve segmenting electric functions (generation, transmission, distribution) that are currently integrated (or bundled) in most cases (both in terms of corporate and rate structures). This report identifies five basic issues this effort raises for the Congress to consider as the debate on restructuring proceeds.
Appropriations for FY2000: Energy and Water Development: Appropriations are one part of a complex federal budget process that includes budget resolutions, appropriations (regular, supplemental, and continuing) bills, rescissions, and budget reconciliation bills. This report is a guide to one of the 13 regular appropriations bills that Congress passes each year. It is designed to supplement the information provided by the House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees on Energy and Water Development Appropriations.
Alcohol Fuels Tax Incentive: This report discusses federal tax subsidies for alcohol transportation fuels, as well as legislative actions underway to repeal, extend, or reduce them.
Alcohol Fuels Tax Incentives and the EPA Renewable Oxygenate Requirement: This report examines the current alcohol fuels Federal tax incentives. Part I describes the statutory provisions of each of the five incentives. Part II examines the major public policy and economic issues of concern to policymakers: potential revenue effects, effectiveness, and economic efficiency.
Tax Incentives for Alcohol Fuels: The blender's tax credits were specifically enacted to complement the excise tax exemptions, so as to help support farm incomes by finding another market for corn, sugar, and other agricultural products that are the basic raw materials for alcohol production. More recently, proponents of expanding the alcohol fuels tax incentives argue that they reduce smog and improve air quality.
The Department of Energy FY1998 Research and Development Budget and Issues: This report focuses on the R&D programs. DOE has divided its activities into four major business categories: Resource, Science and Technology, National Security, and Environmental Quality. Each has an R&D component, although the R&D funding is concentrated in the first three. Table 1 (on the next page) shows FY1997 R&D funding, the FY1998 request, and the FY1998 appropriation actions by those categories
Restructuring Electricity Markets, Public Power, and Tax-Exempt Bonds: An Economic Analysis: Tax-exempt bonds subsidize public power's cost of capital and enable it to lower price. The subsidy is economically beneficial (enables public power price to reflect the true cost of electric service) only if the private market fails to provide the correct amount of electricity. In general, the private market does provide the correct amount of electricity; in those cases when it does not, the tax-exempt bond subsidy is unlikely to correct the problem. Tax-exempt bond legislation over the last 30 years is consistent with this perspective; its focus has been to prohibit the spread of subsidized public power beyond its traditional service areas.

Congressional Research Service Reports - 61 Matching Results

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