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Dorgan says jobs bill isn’t the new energy bill
Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) said Tuesday that jobs legislation he’s crafting with Majority Whip Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) won’t be a magnet for provisions that are contained in separate Senate energy legislation.
The jobs bill, a work in progress, could include billions of dollars in building and manufacturing plant efficiency retrofit provisions, and some other energy-related measures as well.
But Dorgan told reporters Tuesday that the plan is “probably not” going to draw from a sweeping energy bill approved by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee in June.
The committee bill included a nationwide renewable electricity standard, a "green bank" that alternative energy investors want in the jobs bill, wider offshore drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, new federal authority to site transmission lines and many other measures.
Dorgan, who chairs the Democratic Policy Committee, and Durbin plan to unveil more details Thursday, Dorgan said.
It remains unclear if the jobs bill will expand a popular tax credit for manufacturing “clean” energy components that was authorized in the 2009 stimulus law.
The White House and Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) want to expand the program in jobs legislation because the first wave of applications far outstripped the $2.3 billion cap in the stimulus law.
