House passes energy package

WASHINGTON — Brushing aside a veto threat from the White House, the House passed a package of energy measures on Thursday that includes a 40 percent increase in fuel economy standards for cars and light trucks sold in the United States.

The bill's supporters say it will reduce the nation's dependence on imported oil, jump-start development of clean-energy technologies and sharply reduce the nation's production of heat-trapping gases like carbon dioxide.

But the complex and costly bill is all but certain to be radically rewritten when it reaches the Senate because of opposition there to two provisions: $21 billion in new taxes, mostly on the oil industry, and a mandate that electric utilities must generate 15 percent of their power from alternative sources, like wind or solar. The White House threatened to veto the bill if the final version contains those or several other provisions passed by the House.

The House vote was 235-181, with 14 Republicans voting for it and 7 Democrats voting against.

Environmental groups, consumer advocates and alternative-energy companies hailed House passage of the bill, but a broad array of opponents, including cattlemen, coal producers and multinational oil companies, are lining up to block it.

The centerpiece of the bill is a requirement that passenger vehicles sold in the United States achieve a fleet average of 35 miles per gallon by 2020, the first significant increase in mileage standards since 1975. The provision was the result of a deal brokered by Rep. John D. Dingell, D-Mich., who has long protected the domestic automakers' interests in Washington.

Dingell gave his reluctant support for the package in a floor statement before the vote, criticizing the process by which the compromise was reached and suggesting he would not be unhappy to see the Senate remove major parts of the overall bill.

"This bill is not the ultimate answer to our dependence on imported oil, to high energy prices or to climate change," said Dingell. "But it is a major and important step toward those goals, and, for that reason, I will be voting for it."

The White House issued a statement immediately after the vote expressing its objections.

"Unfortunately, Democratic leaders in the House today pushed a partisan bill that members had very little opportunity to study before the vote, which they knew was unacceptable to the president and had no chance being signed into law," the statement said. "Their proposal would raise taxes and increase energy prices for Americans. That is a misguided approach, and if it made it to the president's desk, he would veto it."