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Dept of Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham expresses his views on US energy policy issues. Additional information on use of natural gas as energy source, implementation of clean energy technologies, energy assistance programs and other energy policy issues is included.

Congress passed the Comprehensive National Energy Policy Act on Oct 1, 1992. The law marked the beginning of a new era for the energy industry and it also would have a big influence on investor-owned electric utilities. Throughout the deliberation process, electric utilities disagreed with Congress on various provisions of the law. The issue of amending the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 (PUHCA) was hotly debated. The new PUHCA allows the entry of exempt wholesale generators in electric power generation to spur competition.

PROMISES of changes in the energy law field in the United States have not come to fruition yet in the form of a new national energy act. The final chapters [...]

Congress is likely to continue moratoriums against U.S. Outer Continental Shelf lease sales despite a new law that gives states more input in leasing decisions. Congressional staff members told the [...]

CONGRESS It is always interesting, at the end of even-numbered years, to review the accomplishments of the recently adjourned U.S. Congress. Despite the often-held public view that Congress is a [...]

More aid to low-income households, conservation and education got boosts in high-profile, national energy plans proposed in mid-May. In an effort to preempt the White House, House Democrats introduced their [...]

Generation has become a whole new ballgame as of NOW! No one really needs to say again that as far as the electric utility industry is concerned, the times they [...]

It's still unclear what the Clinton administration will propose to help U.S. producers survive the depression. patc@ogjonline.com U.S. Energy Sec. Bill Richardson has been examining a laundry list of proposals [...]

Sen J. Bennett Johnston has introduced a bill to waive the initial royalties on oil production in the outer continental shelf (OCS), and he hopes to attach it to the omnibus energy legislation currently being considered by a House-Senate conference committee. Johnston's bill would help stimulate deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. However, it seems odd to attach the bill to legislation that reduces OCS drilling elsewhere. While Johnston's bill is a step in the right direction, what the US needs is energy legislation that will stimulate significant new production and exploration., Energy legislation in the U.S. gets weirder all the time. Out of the election year blue comes a bill from Sen. Bennett Johnston (DLa.) to waive initial royalties for production [...]

Comprehensive energy legislation under debate in Congress would have far reaching effects on the electric power industry. The Senate bill, introduced by J. Bennett Johnson and Malcolm Wallop, favors free-market policies. The House version leans toward consumer-protection provisions. Both bills call for revisions to the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 and promotion of renewable energy resources, energy conservation and alternative energy sources., WASHINGTON - Attention to energy policy and debate about the structure of the electric power industry intensified as the House and Senate look ahead to working out a compromise in [...]