Securing America's Future with Energy and Sustainable Technologies Act

Bill: 112-s-559
Sponsor: Sen. Klobuchar, Amy [D-MN]
Introduced: 2011-03-10 in the Senate
Policy area: Energy
Subjects: Administrative law and regulatory procedures
Air quality
Alternative and renewable resources
Business investment and capital
Climate change and greenhouse gases
Congressional oversight
Dams and canals
Electric power generation and transmission
Energy efficiency and conservation
Energy storage, supplies, demand
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
Environmental regulatory procedures
Government lending and loan guarantees
Government studies and investigations
Health care costs and insurance
Income tax credits
Labor standards
Land use and conservation
Marine and coastal resources, fisheries
Motor fuels
Oil and gas
Pipelines
Public utilities and utility rates
Sales and excise taxes
State and local finance
Tax administration and collection, taxpayers
Wages and earnings

Summary:
action_date: 2011-03-10
text: 
Securing America's Future with Energy and Sustainable Technologies Act - Amends the Clean Air Act to revise the renewable fuel program, including by: (1) redefining &quot;advanced biofuel&quot;; and (2) requiring the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to exempt from lifecycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emission requirements for advanced biofuel and biomass-based diesel up to the greater of 1 billion gallons or the program's volume mandate of biomass-based diesel annually from facilities that commenced construction before December 19, 2007. 
 
Sets forth provisions concerning emissions from indirect land use changes outside the country of origin of the feedstock of a renewable fuel, including requiring the Administrator and the Secretary of Agriculture (USDA) to jointly arrange for the National Academies of Science to review and report on specified issues relating to indirect GHG emissions relating to transportation fuels. 
 
Sets forth provisions concerning modifying the the non-federal lands portion and the federal lands portion of the definition of &quot;renewable biomass&quot; in the Clean Air Act and the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (PURPA) in order to advance the goals of increasing U.S. energy independence, protecting the environment, and reducing global warming pollution. 
 
Amends the Energy Policy Act of 2005 to allow the Secretary of Energy (DOE) to make loan guarantees for renewable fuel pipelines and the installation of sufficient infrastructure to allow for the cost-effective deployment of clean energy technologies to each region of the United States.
 
Requires each light-duty automobile manufacturer's annual covered inventory to be comprised of at least 30% fuel choice-enabling automobiles by 2013, 50% by 2015, 80% by 2017, and 100% by 2021 and thereafter.
 
Prohibits any fuel containing ethanol or a renewable fuel that is used to operate an internal combustion engine from being deemed to be a defective product or subject to a failure to warn due to such ethanol or renewable fuel content unless such fuel violates a control or prohibition imposed by the Administrator under the Clean Air Act.
 
Directs the Secretary to require each covered entity to install at each retail fueling station owned or managed by such entity a blender pump and blender pump fuel infrastructure as a replacement for each pump that requires replacement after January 1, 2013.
 
Amends the Internal Revenue Code to: (1) allow a new tax credit for the installation of blender pumps to store or dispense at least three different blends of gasoline and ethanol; (2) revise the income tax credit for alcohol used as fuel to include within the credit amounts for qualified alcohol production, cellulosic biofuel production, and ethanol production by a small ethanol producer and extend such credit and the excise tax credit for ethanol used as fuel through December 31, 2016; (3) revise the income and excise tax credits for biodiesel production to allow a $1 per gallon credit and an enhanced credit for small biodiesel producers; (4) allow a business-related tax credit and payments in lieu of excise tax credits for renewable electricity integration; and (5) exempt renewable wind energy facilities from restrictions on tax write-offs for passive losses and treat income and gains from wind energy as qualifying income for publicly-traded partnerships.
 
Amends the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States to extend until 2016 the additional tariff on ethyl alcohol blends (ethanol) used as fuel.
 
Amends PURPA to require: (1) electric utilities to obtain a specified minimum annual percentage of electricity from renewable energy sources (increasing from 10% in 2013 to 25% in 2025); (2) the Secretary to establish a renewable energy credit trading program; (3) a state renewable energy account program to be established in the Treasury for providing grants to the state agency responsible for developing energy conservation plans for promoting renewable energy production; and (4) the Secretary to establish a program which requires each retail electricity distributor to achieve specified cumulative energy savings (increasing from 1.5% in 2012 to 9.5% in 2020) and each retail natural gas distributor to demonstrate that it has achieved cumulative natural gas savings in each year. Requires the Secretary to promulgate regulations establishing performance standards for cumulative electricity savings and cumulative natural gas savings: (1) by December 31, 2015, for 2021-2030; and (2) by December 31 of the penultimate reporting period for which such standards have been established, for the following 10-calendar-year period.


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2011-03-10
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
action_date: 2011-03-10
text: Introduced in Senate