Thursday, December 13, 2007

Energy bill fails is second vote in Conrgress. 3rd vote set for later today

After passing the House of Representatives the new energy bill carrying the revised CAFE standards, failed it's first round of voting in the halls of Congress at 53-42. The bill was revised and voted on again this morning. This time falling short by the one voted it needed to pass. At 59-40 the bill has again been revised and will be voted on later today.

The major revision is the removal of $21.8 billion dollars in new taxes. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has confirmed that House would pass a new version of the bill sans the tax hike. The Detroit News reports that the revised bill will not include $1 billion in consumer tax credits for buying plug-in hybrids, and will cut a 20% tax credit for people who convert their vehicles into plug-in hybrids(we want more info on this). What will remain is the core piece of legislation that will raise Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards(CAFE) to 35 mpg by 2020. The White House has repeatedly stated, however, that it plans to veto the bill if it passes both houses of Congress.

Source: The Detroit News.