The Clean Affordable Reliable Energy Act or “CARE Act” was introduced by the Senator from Wyoming along with 10 other members of the Senate Western Caucus (SWC) a group of Senators representing states in the mid-west and west.  Co-sponsors include:
Bob Bennett (UT)
Senator Mike Crapo (ID)
Senator John Ensign (NV)
Senator Mike Enzi (WY)
Senator Orrin Hatch (UT)
Senator Jon Kyl (AZ)
Senator Mike Johanns (NE)
Senator Jim Risch (ID)
Senator Pat Roberts (KS)
Senator David Vitter (LA)

The CARE Act is directed as a reply to the Democrat leaning Senate “Cap & Trade” Bill to tax carbon emissions nationwide.  The complaint many senators have had on both sides of the aisle is the scant provision for actual energy production in the Cap & Trade bill.  Due to environmental lobbying neither nuclear nor oil and gas is considered in Cap and Trade.  These three sources alone make up 71.8 % of our energy consumption according the Energy Information Administration.  Barrasso’s bill addresses that concern with the formula to use already existing taxation and royalty principles on the oil and gas production industry to provide for alternative energy job creation programs and the actual development of alternative energy technologies.  The bill will be referred to the Senate Energy Committee and possibly the Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water for debate. 

View the press release announcing the CARE Act on Senator Barrasso’s website.

On the House side the American Made Energy Act of 2009 debuts with Representative Mike Ross a democrat from Arkansas. The bill, coded HR. 3009 promotes the opening of the Coastal Plain of ANWR to oil and gas development and uses the oil tax proceeds from ANWR and Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) oil production to build an alternative energy trust fund to promote development of new energy sources for the future.  Like the Senate bill Ross’s bill addresses the lack of energy production inherent in the House’s version of Cap & Trade.   Within HR 3009’s trust fund are provisions for diverting an expect $80 plus billions of dollars in oil revenues to: wind, solar, biomass, biodiesel, geothermal, hydro, nuclear, carbon capture, coal to liquid and energy efficiency retrofitting projects.  This is perhaps is one of the most comprehensive lists of alternative energy provisions of any bill before Congress, containing more sources of energy than the House Cap & Trade bill itself.   Representative Ross sits on the House Energy and Commerce Committee where HR 3009 will be debated. 

View the full text of the American Made Energy Act of 2009. (PDF)