A vote to end debate on the Senate energy bill (S. 517) is expected this week, even though major differences remain over issues, such as renewable fuel standards and tax credits. Senator Harry Reid (D-NV), the assistant majority leader, filed a motion for cloture on S. 517 late last week.
If cloture is invoked by the Senate (it takes 60 votes), there will be another thirty hours of floor time for debate on the measure, vote on all pending amendments, and attempt final passage of the bill. Sen. Robert Torricelli (D-NJ) is expected to offer an amendment to the energy bill to reinstate the expired tax on the chemical and oil industries to pay for Superfund cleanups.
The amendment would reauthorize for five years a 9.7-cent per barrel tax on petroleum, a tax on 42 chemicals, and a corporate environmental income tax of 0.12 percent on companies earning more than $2 million per year in profits. The Superfund tax, which expired in 1995, is used by the Environmental Protection Agency to pay for cleanups at abandoned hazardous waste sites for which no responsible party is named. The trust fund has been dwindling since 1995 and is expected to be depleted by the end of fiscal year 2003.
ILMA has been monitoring the Superfund tax issue because base oil suppliers historically passed through the Superfund tax as a separate line item on their invoices to independent lubricant manufacturers.
