The Senate finally passed the latest energy bill. Many provisions remain in it including a 35 MPG CAFE standard, support for 36 Billion gallons of ethanol use by 2022 and more.

From the Detroit News Article:

Senate Democrats stripped out requirements that utilities produce 15 percent of their energy from renewable resources by 2020 and also agreed to drop $21.8 billion in new taxes, mostly on oil companies, to try get approval.

While I understand why the taxes didn’t get imposed, I’m wondering what the sticking point was with a renewable porfolio standard. This would require utilities to use a given percentage of their electricity production from renewable sources (15 to 20% seems to be popular). Many of the states contain RPS standards and are actively pushing to meet them. They are a mix of states (mostly sunny and windy ones of course). While I can understand why a federal mandate would be uncomfortable to some (particularly those who don’t really support the need for renewables). But there seems to be a significant support for it in the country. Maybe it’s just ahead of its time.