Energy Biz - September/October 2008 - (Page 112) » leGal eaGle Informing congress HELPiNg ALONg ENERgy LEgiSLATiON By dARRELL dELAMAidE EDiTOr’s nOTE Congressional Research Service reports are considered confidential to the member of Congress requesting them so the CRS does not publish any of them. However, the recipient may make them public. Those available on the Web can be searched through www.zfacts.com/p/576.html. energy is a big deal in congress. In July, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was pushing his bill to stop excessive energy speculation through the upper house as lawmakers reacted to the sharp rise in oil and gas prices. In January, the new Congress under a new administration is expected to tackle carbon emissions through a cap-and-trade program or a carbon tax. All this comes on the heels of two recent major pieces of legislation: the energy acts of 2005 and 2007. So what makes lawmakers such energy experts? In fact, several members of Congress, such as Sen. Jeff Bingaman, chairman of the Energy Committee, and Rep. Jay Inslee, who has written a book on energy, are knowledgeable in their own right. And legions of industry lobbyists stand ready to fill in any information gaps. For more objective information, however, on complex subjects like futures trading, emissions credits and alternative energy technologies, members are likely to turn to the largely unheralded Congressional Research Service. “We are an extension of the Congressional staffs,” says John Blodgett, deputy assistant director of the Resources, Science and Industry Division at CRS, hastening to add that, in contrast to member or committee staffs, the CRS analysts NewsFlash are nonpartisan. Business Rallies “The Energy Committee to Coal is not likely to have any Georgia business geologists on its staff,” leaders have faulted a judge’s ruling that halted says Blodgett. “We have a development of a coalcouple of geologists.” fired generation plant These two geologists to limit carbon dioxide emissions. belong to a 12-member The Georgia energy department at the Chamber of Commerce said that the $2 billion research agency, which has Longleaf Energy Plant, 450 professional analysts the first coal plant to be built in the state on its staff and 700 total in two decades, is employees. Matrixed with needed, according to the Associated Press. environmental and other September/October 2008 fields, as many as 30 analysts will work on energy issues, Blodgett says. Housed in the Madison building of the Library of Congress, just across the street from the Capitol, CRS is one of the three major agencies that help Congress do its work. The other two are the Government Accountability Office, which audits operations of federal departments and agencies at the request of members, and the Congressional Budget Office, which helps Congress cost out legislation and provides lawmakers with their own experts on budgetary matters. “Physical proximity is crucial,” notes Blodgett. “Hardly a day goes by when one of our analysts isn’t across the street providing a briefing to a member or a committee staff.” The agency responds to every request for information from a member of Congress or staff, whether in the printed form for such requests or a direct call to one of the analysts. It also initiates reports that may anticipate legislative issues, conducts workshops with outside experts and brokers information from relevant sources. “The CRS is one of many resources we use,” agrees Bill Wicker, communications director at the Senate Energy Committee. “It’s a very broad relationship — some members have never looked at anything they have done and others use it on a near-daily basis.” Wicker says the committee relies on its staff for a good amount of expertise. For instance, most of the research and analysis on the excessive speculation bill at the committee was from a knowledgeable member of the staff, he says. Committee members also tap into the Energy Information Administration, a research body attached to the Department of Energy. Although it is part of the executive branch, EIA operates at arm’s length from the administration and is unbiased in its research, Wicker says. “If they were slanting anything, they wouldn’t be a go-to resource.” Members will listen to what lobbyists say, but take it with a grain of salt. “Members are very sophisticated,” says CRS’s Blodgett. “They know why a lobbyist is biased and they will ask us about the factual basis.” 112 E n E rgyB i z http://www.zfacts.com/p/576.html http://www.energycentral.com
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