NEWS OF THE WEEK GOVERNMENT
& POLICY
HOUSE PASSES ENERGY BILL SANCTUARY One contentious provision of the energy bill calls for oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Legislation includes controversial provisions on MTBE and drilling
B
Y A 2 4 9 - T O - 1 8 3 VOTE, THE
House has cleared an energy bill that is similar to legislation that failed the Senate last year. The Senate is expected to vote on a new energy bill in May
IRAQ
SURVEY
The House bill holds a strong tilt to traditional energy providers over companies using renewable or other nonfossil, nonnuclear energy sources. And it carries several provisions that have generated sharp divisions in Congress. In particular, one provision gives liability protection to makers of methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE), a gasoline additive responsible for contaminating groundwater aquifers in 29 states. Opponents of the House legislation say the MTBE provisions would require states and municipalities to pick up the estimated $29 billion water cleanup tab.
GROUP
HUNT ENDS FOR IRAQ'S WEAPONS U.S. inspector says search "has gone as far as feasible"
C
Duelfer 8
C & E N / MAY 2, 2 0 0 5
HIEF U.S. WEAPONS INSPEC-
tor Charles A. Duelfer has wrapped up a two-year hunt for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction (WMD), and he concludes that United Nations sanctions and inspections imposed in 1991 had essentially checked Iraq's weapons aspirations. His Central Intelligence Agency-sponsored Iraq Survey Group (ISG) officially disbanded earlier this month. In a recently released note and an addendum to an ISG report issued last fall, which is available at www.cia.gov, Duelfer writes: "The W M D investigation has
gone as far as feasible." He argues for the release of those detained weapons scientists and engineers who cooperated with ISG. Duelfer admits to the small risk that these scientists might share their skills with neighboring countries or terrorists, but he suggests their expertise has dwindled considerably since the end of the 1991 GulfWar. During debriefings, they confirmed that Iraq had used the nerve gas VX against Iran during the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s and against the Shia uprising in Karbala, Iraq, after the 1991 war, he writes.
These liability provisions killed last year's energy bill in the Senate, and in the House, the MTBE language passed by only six votes. Other contentious sections of the House energy bill allow oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, give the federal government primary authority to approve liquefied natural gas terminals, and provide economic incentives to companies building new gasoline refineries in poor communities. The legislation offers up to $ 12 billion in tax breaks over 10 years, and billions more in funding for a variety of federal energy R&D programs sprinkled throughout the bill. The Bush Administration has sought an energy bill with a total cap of $6.7 billion but supports the House bill. The President is pushing Congress to approve an energy bill before the August recess and last week sketched out issues the Administration wants to see addressed in a final package.—JEFF JOHNSON
The addendum notes that an Iraqi scientist helped insurgents build chemical mortars. However, Duelfer's predecessor, David A. Kay, says this was "probably bathtub mustard agent, which is not very effective but is easy to produce." Ifkept under government control, Iraq's chemical and biological infrastructure "does not pose a proliferation concern," nor do its remaining dual-use nuclear materials and equipment. Any future surprise, Duelfer writes, is likely to be in the biological weapons area "since the signature and facilities for these efforts are small compared to the other W M D types." Remaining unresolved is whether Iraq moved weapons and W M D materials to Syria before the 2003 war. ISG believes it unlikely that official transfers occurred but couldn't rule out "unofficial movement of limited material."—LOIS EMBER WWW.CEN-0NLINE.ORG
