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Bill Supporters Wait Till Next Year November 24, 2003 Three days after Senate opponents blocked a vote on the sweeping energy bill, Majority Leader Bill Frist announced defeat but only for this year. The reprieve is a victory for IBEW members, who would have been harmed by its passage. Despite energetic support from the House of Representatives and the White House, supporters could not overcome a solid bloc of opponents. Two votes short of passage on a procedural motion on November 21, Frist was unable to win support by Monday and decided to devote himself to finding the necessary support to win the legislation during the holidays when Congress is in official recess. Written solely by House and Senate Republicans, the $31 billion bill rewards big money oil and gas interests while seeking to undo the protections of a 70-year-old law that protects customers from big utility mergers. Several Senate Republicans joined most Democrats to block the legislation. November 19,
2003 Congress dealt President Bush a substantial victory this week when Republican leaders of a House-Senate conference committee came to agreement on an energy bill. Although the conference bill must again pass the House of Representatives and the Senate, within a week the president could finally have the energy legislation he has sought since he took office in 2001. While the president might claim success on a major policy initiative, it will come at a high cost to consumers and IBEW members, who are the clear losers in the legislation. The agreement between special appointees from the House and Senate was the result of secret negotiations that completely shut Democrats out. "The IBEW opposes both the process by which this deal was reached as well as the end product," said IBEW International President Edwin D. Hill. "Back room deals only serve those with the access, and the legislation is certainly a reflection of what money can buy." The bill contains a repeal of the Public Utilities Holding Company Act (PUHCA), a bedrock consumer protection law that has been in place since 1932. Designed to prevent corruption by large holding companies, its demise would result in renewed turmoil in the utility industry, said IBEW International Representative Jim Hunter. For more than 70 years the laws regulations and restrictions have prevented companies from controlling too large a share of the industry and manipulating prices and markets. If the current bill passes, Hunter said, companies would take advantage of the loose rules to purchase industry entities like gas and electric companies and build up the very market power that regulation fears in the 1930s. "Every time theres a merger or an acquisition, there are job cuts, which is bad for consumers and bad for employees," Hunter said. "PUHCA repeal is going to really open that up tremendously." The bill also provides tax incentives for electricity transmission investment, gives loan guarantees for a gas pipeline from Alaska to Chicago and contains provisions that set guidelines for training in the utility industry, all of which are likely to benefit IBEW members, Hunter said. However, nothing in the bill requires the use of project labor agreements. So its possible IBEW will not get any benefit from the construction spurred by the legislation, but rather that the benefits would go to the major nonunion energy firms with ties to the Bush-Cheney administration. The IBEW was also able to persuade lawmakers to hold off the implementation of the so-called standard market design until 2007. That would shift control of the electric transmission system from the states to federal government, meaning the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in Washington, not the public utility commission in each state, will determine prices and access to the transmission systems. The bill also does very little to address inherent flaws in the energy markets that allow the sort of system manipulations that devastated California and the West Coast in recent years. Both the House and the Senate must vote yes or no on the final bill, without amendments. Such votes are likely to happen before Thanksgiving. Let your representatives know you oppose this legislation. Click here to send a message through the IBEW Congressional Action Center.
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Edwin Hill's Letter to Congress on Energy BillBelieve it or Not It Could Happen AgainPresident Edwin D. Hill on Largest Power Failure in U.S. HistoryCongress Debates Energy Bill AgainEnergy Bill Defeated...Energy Bill Outcome Depends on VotersWhat's Happening with Utiltity Restructurin
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