The U.S. has an Energy Policy!

摘要

After five years of wrangling, the U.S. Congress finally delivered the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which President Bush duly signed into law. Critics can no longer complain that the U.S. does not have an energy policy. However, at 1,724 pages — longer than Tolstoy's War and Peace — the new act is heavy lifting. As one Washington wag has observed, the act is the "sum of all lobbies." The act contains something for almost everyone. And while the fever has subsided over the lobbying to secure important provisions in the new law, we, as an industry, can waste little time recounting legislative successes. Now, federal agencies must translate and embrace the law within their own operations; they are obliged to develop plans for implementing the act. In taking these next steps, the agencies both need, and can benefit from, industry input and assistance. Contrariwise, if the hydro industry fails to provide needed and useful assistance, unwanted outcomes can be expected.