Washington (Platts)--2Mar2011/518 am EST/1018 GMT
US Republican Representative Devin Nunes of California said that he plans to introduce legislation Thursday calling for a federal trust fund for renewable development funded through oil drilling revenues, and establishing a mandate to construct 200 nuclear reactors in the US by 2030. The bill is similar to a bill Nunes introduced in the 111th Congress. That was rolled into the Republican alternative to the Democrats' energy bill, but it never passed the full Congress. Nunes, serving in his fifth term in the US House of Representatives, is a member of the Ways and Means Committee and a member of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Nunes, speaking Tuesday at the Energybiz Leadership Forum in Washington, outlined his approach to oil drilling -- "drill everywhere" -- and energy efficiency. "For the past decades the mantra has been efficiency and energy productivity -- these are code words for rationing, and are often used by extremist groups who think we should make do with less despite the abundance available to us," Nunes said. If nuclear is combined with solar energy and other renewables-- "you get to a place where long-term you have a clean energy supply," he said. The bill would establish a renewable energy trust fund, which avoids the federal government "picking winners and losers" in technology, Nunes said. Monies from the fund, established through oil drilling lease and royalty revenues, would be distributed using a reverse auction for renewable energy in which projects would bid for federal assistance on a per megawatt basis. The lowest bid wins, regardless of technology, and auction winners would enter into a contract with the federal government to generate a certain amount of energy from renewable sources in a specified time frame.--Jason Fordney, jason_fordney@platts.comSimilar stories appear in Inside Energy. See more information at http://bit.ly/InsideEnergy