Democrats to Focus on Fuel

The House plan focuses almost exclusively on crop-derived biofuels. "From corn in the Midwest, to soybeans in North Carolina, to sugar beets in Minnesota, we grow the crops that can be converted into the biofuels that power our cars," said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), when House Democrats announced the plan May 11.

Although narrowly focused, the House plan has a specific audience in mind: conservative rural voters, whom Democrats believe are particularly disgruntled with Republican leadership and for whom high gas prices are a particular burden.

Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), who chairs the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said of the package: "It's perfect for an Iowa open congressional seat. It's perfect for a Montana Senate race. An Indiana or Kentucky race."

At 352 pages, the Senate package includes benefits for almost every faction of the energy industry. It calls for the expanded use of flexible fuel vehicles, which can run on higher blends of biofuels, and would help local governments and individual gas stations install more biofuel pumps. Oil companies would be required to install the pumps at the gas stations that they own.

Senate Democrats would establish a nationwide renewable energy standard, mandating that 10 percent of electricity come from renewable sources by 2020. To reach that goal, they would subsidize the development of alternative energy technologies, such as wind, solar power and liquefied coal.

The third is popular in mining states such as West Virginia and Montana -- where Democrats are trying to defend one Senate seat and pick up another -- but environmental groups strongly oppose the fuel as dirty and impractical.

"It's really refreshing that they're focusing on reducing demand," said Anna Aurilio, a lobbyist for U.S. PIRG, a leading environmental group, referring to the Senate package. But the coal provision, she said, "is the worst of all possible worlds."

Neither Democratic plan requires Detroit automakers to manufacture more fuel-efficient cars, a step that many environmental groups believe would be the single most effective way to reduce fuel consumption. But Democrats don't want to undercut Sen. Debbie Stabenow's reelection in Michigan. Instead, the Senate package would provide federal assistance to the auto industry to advance fuel technologies.

"This bill doesn't do everything," Reid conceded.

Republicans dismissed Democratic ideas as incomplete because they don't seek to increase domestic oil drilling. Sen. Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.), chairman of the energy committee, called the Senate Democrats' plan "a sprinkling of good ideas, a heavy helping of bad ideas and distractions, and a pathetic absence of any effort to increase America's energy supply."

House and Senate Republicans also have energy proposals, although they have yet to coalesce around a single package.