House Passes Energy Bill With PTP Provision; Senate Bill with PTP Provision to be Considered September 23

 

 On September 16 the House passed H.R. 6899, the "Comprehensive American Energy Security and Consumer Protection Act," by a vote of 236-189 after a contentious debate over its offshore drilling and tax provisions.  The bill extends expiring energy tax provisions and provides tax incentives (approximately $18 billion worth) for investment in renewable energy, carbon capture and sequestration demonstration projects, energy efficiency and conservation.  Section 830 of the bill (page 264) contains the provision to add transportation and storage of renewable fuels to qualifying income for PTPs.  The revenue cost of these provisions is offset by repealing the section 199 manufacturing and production credit and changing the taxation of foreign oil and gas income.  

The House bill is considered a non-starter in the Senate due to opposition by Republicans and some producer-state Democrats to the restrictions it places on offshore drillingand the lack of revenue sharing for coastal states, among other provisions. In addition, the White House has threatened to veto the bill.

In the meantime, also on September 16, Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) and ranking minority member Charles Grassley (R-IA) joined the Democratic and Republican Senate leadership in reaching an agreement for moving energy legislation, alternative minimum tax (AMT) relief, and extension of expiring tax provisions in separate votes on the floor.  The package of energy tax provisions that will be brought to the floor is similar to S. 3478, introduced earlier in the week, except that repeal of the section 199 production credits has been taken out of the bill.   The revised package now contains two PTP provisions: one adding income and gains from industrial source carbon dioxide to qualifying income (section 116 on page 66) and the other our renewable fuels provision (section 208 on page 89). 

The floor vote, which initially was to take place the week of September 15, is now scheduled for September 23.

Related Links:

Click here for the text of H.R. 6899

Click here for the revenue estimate for H.R. 6899

Click here for the text of the current Senate energy tax provisions

Click here for the revenue estimate for the Senate provisions

.