HB 22-14: The Red-Green New Deal (Passed)

[Elcaspar]

I oppose this bill in its current form, and probably will in any form. It will put hard-working Atlasians out of work in search of some green pipe dream. Things do not get changed over night. We still need natural gas. Fracking it ensures that a lower carbon fuel is used for electricity and to heat homes. Would you prefer we go back to coal - because that’s what will ultimately have to happen. And prices will spike.

Bad bill. Bad idea.

Clearly our dear new Representative can't read what's in the actual bill, or what has been discussed.
It clearly states in the bill that:

The NPWA shall seek to employ twenty million workers over a ten-year period.

This would very likely include said hard-working Atlasian workers, not to mention that a potential worker's compensation might be included in the bill as Speaker Thumb21 has mentioned. So your concerns are ill-founded when it comes to this bill "putting people out of work". Not to mention the ridiculous claims that we still need to rely on coal and natural gas by 2035, because apparently that is supposedly not enough time for our supposed "Green pipe dream".

The fracking ban starts today or in a few months, depending on whether the amendment is adopted. That's not enough time to ramp up the socialist government jobs program created by the bill - which I also oppose. LOL Learn To Code and be forced to join a union is not a solution to people making a lot of money in their current jobs doing something that's both economically and environmentally beneficial to the country.

The Atlasian left seems to think there's no downsides to their government-mandated policies. You can't heat your house in the winter with rainbow and unicorn farts. You need to use some sort of fuel or electricity. Banning fracking will reduce the supply of natural gas. What happens when there's less supply? Prices go up. This bill will cause our senior citizens to literally freeze because they can't afford to heat their houses any more.

Motion to table this bad piece of legislation.

Objecting to the tabling motion.

I mean can agree with fracking ban being on too short notice, and so have a few others, but that is something that can fixed in the bill trough an amendment so there can made enough time for the transition. Socialist government programs? Not that i expected better arguments to be made from the right. The notion that any government action at all is socialist is quite frankly ill-founded.
State ownership and control is not necessarily socialism, if that were the case, the army, the police, the judges, and the jailers would all be considered socialist functionaries. Do you see the problem with this argument?

Forced to join a union? Hardly. It's a condition of employment, just like there are in any other workplace, so tell me how that is any different? And then you also somehow imply that  paying people equivalent to 10% above a "living wage" determined by their residency, is somehow not an adequate enough compensation for work? And please, calling fracking environmentally beneficial to our country is a joke. Increased water pollution and reliance on fossil fuels is far from environmentally beneficial.

And you don't really need that extra extraction from fracking to heat our homes in the 15 year period before fossil fuels are phased out in 2035. So we don't need that extra supply of natural gas. You act as if we aren't building new sources of energy while the supply goes down, so that fear-mongering about prices are ill-founded.

[Blair]

Amendment on Fracking; this will stop any new sites being leased & imposes a tax on fracking from 2021 with a ban then taking place from 2022 onwards. I wouldn't favour an immediate ban but support it happening quickly as we know that Fracking contributes heavily to Methane pollution & we've actually gone a lot further in Atlasia in promoting green & clean energy.

Current Text

The Red-Green New Deal

SENATE BILL

To address climate change in Atlasia

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in Congress assembled,

Section I: Title

1. This Act may be cited as the "Red-Green New Deal" or "RGND".

Section II: Resolution

1. We Recognize:

  a. The seriousness and urgency associated with climate change must be met with swift action in order to ensure the continued welfare and prosperity of all Atlasians.

  b. Those at fault must be held accountable, and the industries polluting our environment must be eliminated.

  c. We must aim for a total phase-out of fossil fuels by 2035.

  d. We can spark a green revolution in Atlasia and become a focal point in a new age of industry and technology.

Section III: Extraction

1. Offshore drilling within 25 miles of the Atlasian coastline shall be prohibited 5 months from the passage of this bill

2. The use of hydraulic fracking in Atlasia shall be prohibited 5 months from the passage of this bill.

2.) The placing of new oil pipeline, other than for the use of repair or renovation of existing lines, is hereby prohibited.

  a. Any update, repair, or alteration to existing pipeline must comply with existing regulation and be reviewed by appropriate local and federal agencies.

Section IV: Hydraulic Fracking

1.) No new leases shall be granted by any federal agency for new hydraulic fracturing operations, new pipelines, new liquefied natural gas or oil export terminals, new natural gas storage, new ethane cracker plants, new natural gas power generation plants, or other infrastructure intended to extract, transport, or burn natural gas or oil.

2.) A tax of 10% shall be applied on the profits of any firm which operates any existing lease for hydraulic fracturing operations from the 1st June 2020.

A.) This tax shall increase to 15% from the 1st June 2021.

B.) Beginning on January 1, 2022, the practice of hydraulic fracturing for oil and natural gas is prohibited on all onshore and offshore land in Atlasia.

Section V: Utility Ownership

1. The Department of Internal Affairs shall be instructed to create a Social Energy Fund.

  a. The Fund shall receive an amount equivalent to gaining public control over the top twenty five largest publicly traded energy companies.

    i. "Public Control" is defined as at least 51% of total shares.

  b. The Fund shall offer to voluntarily purchase up to 51% of the total shares in the companies described in IV.1.a.
 
    i. With each offer, the Department of Internal Affairs shall release a statement declaring its aim to compulsorily purchase the shares required to acquire a majority within sixteen months.

  c. The Fund shall be chartered to utilize its stake in the companies described in IV.1.a to achieve the following.

    i. Compliance with international de-carbonization objectives.
   
    ii. The transition to an energy sector led by publicly owned renewable energy companies.
 
    iii. The gradual phase-out of fossil fuel extraction.

Section VI: Public Works

1. The Department Internal Affairs shall be instructed to create a New Public Works Administration

  a. The NPWA shall develop, administrate, maintain and oversee public building projects.

  b. The NPWA shall be led by the ranking officer for the Department of Internal Affairs.

    i. Shall there be no ranking officer for the Department Internal Affairs be vacant, these duties shall fall to the President of Atlasia.

2. The ranking officer for the Department Internal Affairs may appoint a board of NPCs to assist in the development of NPWA projects.

3. NPWA projects shall include

    a. Steel and Auto Manufacturing

    b. Construction and Enginering

    c. Renewable Energy Development and Energy Efficiency Retrofitting

    d. Coding, Server Farms and Technological Development

    e. Sustainable Agriculture

    f. Civil Corps
 
    g. Finance and Information

    h. Statistics and Social Research

4. All NPWA projects shall provide workers with the following.

  a. Pay equivalent to 10% above a "living wage" determined by residency.

  b. Full membership in a labor union.

  c. Employment benefits delegated per project.

5. The NPWA shall seek to employ twenty million workers over a ten-year period.

6. The NPWA shall operate with an annual budget of $250 billion.

Section VII: Effective Date

1. This act takes effect on June 1st, 2020.

[thumb21]

I also just wanted to add to Elcaspar's points - we can debate all the specifics of the bill and we can amend and amend, I have already outlined my own issues and concerns with this bill as it stands right now - and if anyone else has concerns, they should be heard, this is a major bill.

But, lets not lose sight of the bigger picture. The scientific consensus is pretty clear - climate change is an extremely serious threat to the planet. Sea levels will continue to rise, threatening coastal communities across the country. Droughts, hurricanes, wildfires will continue to get worse. We absolutely need serious policies to deal with climate change and that should be the overall objective of debates on this bill.

[Lumine]

Right. A lot of things to say here:

SECTIONS II AND III:

I happen to strongly agree with the general principle that urgent and reasonably ambitious action is necessary (vital even) if we are to tackle climate change effectively. In that sense, the spirit of Section II and the goals of Section III are laudable and something I support, but I think the implementation is - with all due respect to the author and sponsors - horribly botched and reckless. You simply cannot phase out important parts of the Atlasian economy in a matter of weeks or months, not when accounting for the cost in both human and economic terms, and any attempt to enact something with a similar schedule in RL would be an utter disaster.

Blair's amendment is a step in the right direction, but it still is too narrow in terms of timing. You can't just waltz in and tell a private company they will face punishing tax increases starting in three months and that they have to pack up for good in less twenty months. I wouldn't advocate excessive leniency, for you need more time if you want to implement it right rather than force businesses into an outright panic with the obvious consecuences. The same principle applies to offshore drilling.

SECTION IV:

I will be presenting an amendment to strike down Section IV from this bill.

Taking decisive action on the environment is something that can be perfectly achieved without going through the sheer mistake of ramping up nationalization of the energy sector. Not only that, it is a vastly different debate than what is brought forward by Sections II and III, and in my opinion warrants separate and responsible discussion in a different bill. To proceed otherwise seems like attempting to ram through a very different (and far more ideological) goal into a bill which should be practical rather than idealistic to the point of causing harm when implemented. Other measures can be pursued (even a carrot and stick approach), but government ownership of the energy sector is a goal I cannot share not support.

SECTION V:

Unlike Section IV, I'm not hostile to the notion of public works as a useful - if temporary and provisional - tool to tackle certain problems like unemployment, decay of infraestructure, urban renewal and, in this case, the development of renewable energy. But similar concerns arise, including that:

A. The NPWA is granted too broad a mandate, allowing it to compete in sectors of the economy in which it has no practical reason to do so, or in which its involvement would prove counterproductive.

B. Immediately goes towards an unrealistic goal of twenty million workers employed, and adds an enormous cost to the federal budget without an attempt to compensate elsewhere.

C. Again, is a proposal complex enough to warrant detailed debate and should be best conducted on its own bill.

SUMMARY:

Sharing (and I sincerely do) the urgent to act and be bold in the solutions we put forward, it seems clear this bill does suffer from serious implementation and debate flaws that ought to be corrected lest we ram through a bill that will either cause unintended harm or take advantage of the climate emergency to drastically expand the role of the state in the Atlasian economy to an excessive degree. Would be happy to vote for Sections II and III provided a reasonable phasing out schedule can be agreed upon for the provisions of Section III (would three to five years really be such a problem? Less really seems reckless to me), and would certainly consider supporting some notions of Section V in a separate bill, provided we had a NPWA that wasn't designed to be an economic behemoth (which on by itself does not guarantee efficiency). Section IV does not belong on this bill, nor can I support it.

[P. Clodius Pulcher did nothing wrong]

I'm broadly supportive of this bill, and if some members prefer to push back the abolition of fracking in order to get behind it then I can accept that compromise.

[Fmr. Representative Encke]

Regarding Blair's amendment: make sure to change all references to Section IV.1.a to Section V.1.a to remain consistent with the new numbering.

Regarding Section V: Utility Ownership:
Since no one seems to have done a cost analysis on this yet, I went through and looked at the top 25 publicly traded energy companies (to be generous, I only looked at companies that would fall into the category 'oil and gas').

Results:

Name	HQ	Mark. Cap ($bil, 11/2019)	*0.51
Exxon Mobil	USA	308.91	157.5441
Royal Dutch Shell	Netherlands	234.59	119.6409
Chevron	USA	231.4	118.014
Total S.A.	France	146.38	74.6538
PetroChina	China	144.66	73.7766
BP P.L.C	UK	134.25	68.4675
Reliance Industries Ltd.	India	129.44	66.0144
Petrobras	Brazil	103.43	52.7493
Gazprom	Russia	91.73	46.7823
Sinopec	China	84.45	43.0695
Rosneft	Russia	75.57	38.5407
Enbridge Inc.	Canada	74.36	37.9236
CNOOC Limited	China	73.46	37.4646
PJSC Lukoil	Russia	70.46	35.9346
Equinor ASA	Norway	66.14	33.7314
Conocophillips	USA	65.33	33.3183
Novatek	Russia	64.7	32.997
Eni S.P.A	Italy	57.46	29.3046
Phillips 66	USA	53.13	27.0963
Schlumberger	USA	50.31	25.6581
Suncor Energy Inc.	Canada	49.62	25.3062
EOG Resources	USA	43.4	22.134
Marathon Petroleum Corporation	USA	43.02	21.9402
PTT Public Company Limited	Thailand	42.72	21.7872
Valero Energy Corporation	USA	42.02	21.4302
SUM			1265.2794 billion

[thumb21]

Slight change to Blair's amendment.

Adds some time for the fracking ban to take effect, prioritises banning fracking near to homes - which is known to cause serious health problems, and increases the tax on fracking to 20% from June 2022.

The Red-Green New Deal

SENATE BILL

To address climate change in Atlasia

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in Congress assembled,

Section I: Title

1. This Act may be cited as the "Red-Green New Deal" or "RGND".

Section II: Resolution

1. We Recognize:

  a. The seriousness and urgency associated with climate change must be met with swift action in order to ensure the continued welfare and prosperity of all Atlasians.

  b. Those at fault must be held accountable, and the industries polluting our environment must be eliminated.

  c. We must aim for a total phase-out of fossil fuels by 2035.

  d. We can spark a green revolution in Atlasia and become a focal point in a new age of industry and technology.

Section III: Extraction

1. Offshore drilling within 25 miles of the Atlasian coastline shall be prohibited 5 months from the passage of this bill

2. The placing of new oil pipeline, other than for the use of repair or renovation of existing lines, is hereby prohibited.

  a. Any update, repair, or alteration to existing pipeline must comply with existing regulation and be reviewed by appropriate local and federal agencies.

Section IV: Hydraulic Fracking

1. No new leases shall be granted by any federal agency for new hydraulic fracturing operations, new pipelines, new liquefied natural gas or oil export terminals, new natural gas storage, new ethane cracker plants, new natural gas power generation plants, or other infrastructure intended to extract, transport, or burn natural gas or oil.

2. A tax of 10% shall be applied on the profits of any firm which operates any existing lease for hydraulic fracturing operations from the 1st June 2020.

 a. This tax shall increase to 15% from the 1st June 2021.

 b. This tax shall increase to 20% on the 1st June 2022

 c. Beginning on January 1, 2022, the practice of hydraulic fracturing for oil and natural gas is prohibited within 2,500 feet of a home, school, or other inhabited structure in Atlasia.

 d. Beginning on January 1, 2022 2024, the practice of hydraulic fracturing for oil and natural gas is prohibited on all onshore and offshore land in Atlasia.

Section V: Utility Ownership

1. The Department of Internal Affairs shall be instructed to create a Social Energy Fund.

  a. The Fund shall receive an amount equivalent to gaining public control over the top twenty five largest publicly traded energy companies.

    i. "Public Control" is defined as at least 51% of total shares.

  b. The Fund shall offer to voluntarily purchase up to 51% of the total shares in the companies described in IV.1.a.
 
    i. With each offer, the Department of Internal Affairs shall release a statement declaring its aim to compulsorily purchase the shares required to acquire a majority within sixteen months.

  c. The Fund shall be chartered to utilize its stake in the companies described in IV.1.a to achieve the following.

    i. Compliance with international de-carbonization objectives.
   
    ii. The transition to an energy sector led by publicly owned renewable energy companies.
 
    iii. The gradual phase-out of fossil fuel extraction.

Section VI: Public Works

1. The Department Internal Affairs shall be instructed to create a New Public Works Administration

  a. The NPWA shall develop, administrate, maintain and oversee public building projects.

  b. The NPWA shall be led by the ranking officer for the Department of Internal Affairs.

    i. Shall there be no ranking officer for the Department Internal Affairs be vacant, these duties shall fall to the President of Atlasia.

2. The ranking officer for the Department Internal Affairs may appoint a board of NPCs to assist in the development of NPWA projects.

3. NPWA projects shall include

    a. Steel and Auto Manufacturing

    b. Construction and Enginering

    c. Renewable Energy Development and Energy Efficiency Retrofitting

    d. Coding, Server Farms and Technological Development

    e. Sustainable Agriculture

    f. Civil Corps
 
    g. Finance and Information

    h. Statistics and Social Research

4. All NPWA projects shall provide workers with the following.

  a. Pay equivalent to 10% above a "living wage" determined by residency.

  b. Full membership in a labor union.

  c. Employment benefits delegated per project.

5. The NPWA shall seek to employ twenty million workers over a ten-year period.

6. The NPWA shall operate with an annual budget of $250 billion.

Section VII: Effective Date

1. This act takes effect on June 1st, 2020.

[thumb21]

Thanks for your effort here.

Are these numbers just for their US assets or global?

[Lumine]

Thank you for that analysis, Encke! At the risk of sounding reiterative, I think it does clearly illustrate one of the significant problems associated with the original section IV.

That aside, I'm supportive of Thumb's amendment, 2024 is a far more reasonable date to end fracking.

[Fmr. Representative Encke]

Thanks for your effort here.

Are these numbers just for their US assets or global?

The wording in the bill is 'the top twenty five largest publicly traded energy companies.' If the author's intention was that this should be 'the top twenty five largest US-based publicly traded energy companies,' then that probably should have been specified.

After doing a bit of digging, I assume that this *was* the author's intention, as the Jacobin article from which this bill's ideas seem to be derived states as much:

What we should do instead is have the state buy a controlling stake in all major fossil fuel firms.

This could be quite costly — writers from The Democracy Collaborative recently estimated “the price tag to purchase outright the top 25 largest US-based publicly traded oil and gas companies, along with most of the remaining publicly traded coal companies” at $1.15 trillion. But there are ways to minimize this cost while still obtaining all of the benefits.

The mode for gaining public control of these companies should involve making the federal government’s final intentions well known to investors from the outset. Control over these shares would be given to a new Social Energy Fund, which would be chartered to use its stake in the firms to achieve key priorities, including national compliance with ambitious decarbonization targets and building up publicly owned renewable energy firms. This means stating from the outset that huge quantities of oil and gas will be left in the ground. The state would vote for resolutions and directors that will ensure its social goals are met.

Unfortunately, the actual 1.15 trillion cost estimate given here is behind a subscriber paywall so I can't see how those numbers were derived.

[Fmr. Representative Encke]

I do wonder how the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy will work in the context of nationalization, and I would like more specifics about the sponsor's vision for how this process will be carried out. Is the plan to change these former oil companies into renewable energy companies? Is the goal to just shut them down completely and transition displaced workers to the NPWA? What are the geographical implications of this for said workers?

I suppose the bill handles these issues by passing them off to a collection of NPCs (in this case, the Dep't of Internal Affairs), but I have never been a fan of this sort of 'legislating by NPC.'

Finally, I'd like the sponsor (or author, if necessary) to explain why each of the listed categories in the 'Public Works' (original section V, section VI under Blair's amedment) was included.

[Peanut]

So Blair, thoughts on the amendment?

[Peanut]

Hello yes

[Fmr. Representative Encke]

Will motion to table in 24 hours if I don't receive a proper response to my questions from this bill's proponents. It's been 11 days, folks!

[Fmr. Representative Encke]

Will motion to table in 24 hours if I don't receive a proper response to my questions from this bill's proponents. It's been 11 days, folks!

Motion to table.

[cinyc]

Second the motion to table.

[Blair]

Hi folks I'm currently working about 10 hours a day to deal with IRL sh**t & don't have time to check these boards every day- if you have a question that I haven't responded to send me a PM rather than tabling a bill you don't the votes to table.

I'm happy to answer and work on amendments with others if we can withdraw the motion.

[Fmr. Representative Encke]

Hi folks I'm currently working about 10 hours a day to deal with IRL sh**t & don't have time to check these boards every day- if you have a question that I haven't responded to send me a PM rather than tabling a bill you don't the votes to table.

I'm happy to answer and work on amendments with others if we can withdraw the motion.

Very well, withdrawing the motion to table. Will write up a more detailed set of questions tomorrow and PM you when that is finished. Although I suspect that if I had not introduced the motion to table in the first place, this bill would have sat dormant for another week.

rather than tabling a bill you don't the votes to table.

And I'd hope that tabling a bill that goes so long without debate, yet is clearly not ready for a final vote, would be a matter of common sense, not a matter of having or not having votes.

[Blair]

Thanks; I know my response was a bit bitchy & is probably a remainder not to post the moment you get up.

I honestly think & will clarify this in more detail tomorrow that with the amount of money being spent to buy outright those 25 companies & shares you can reach the same aims (mitigating the climate crisis) through different means- and of course this was all pre-COVID-19 ruining our economy.

[Leinad]

This is generally a good bill and I look forward to a version thereof passing!

[Lumine]

An amendment to:

-Install a more realistic deadline to end offshore drilling operations, but mantaining the ban on new pipelines.
-Eliminate the Section dedicated to nationalizing the energy sector.
-Narrow the mandate of the New Public Works Administration into a more effective mandate, removing the employment target and reducing some of the budget considering how screwed we are going to be in fiscal terms given the present situation.

As I said before, I commend the goals of most of the bill and share them enthusiastically, but I sincerely believe the bill as written remains irresponsible in certain areas and can be improved.

The Red-Green New Deal

SENATE BILL

To address climate change in Atlasia

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in Congress assembled,

Section I: Title

1. This Act may be cited as the "Red-Green New Deal" or "RGND".

Section II: Resolution

1. We Recognize:

  a. The seriousness and urgency associated with climate change must be met with swift action in order to ensure the continued welfare and prosperity of all Atlasians.

  b. Those at fault must be held accountable, and the industries polluting our environment must be eliminated.

  c. We must aim for a total phase-out of fossil fuels by 2035.

  d. We can spark a green revolution in Atlasia and become a focal point in a new age of industry and technology.

Section III: Extraction

1. Offshore drilling within 25 miles of the Atlasian coastline shall be prohibited 5 months from the passage of this bill from January 1st, 2024.

2. The placing of new oil pipeline, other than for the use of repair or renovation of existing lines, is hereby prohibited.

  a. Any update, repair, or alteration to existing pipeline must comply with existing regulation and be reviewed by appropriate local and federal agencies.

Section IV: Hydraulic Fracking

1. No new leases shall be granted by any federal agency for new hydraulic fracturing operations, new pipelines, new liquefied natural gas or oil export terminals, new natural gas storage, new ethane cracker plants, new natural gas power generation plants, or other infrastructure intended to extract, transport, or burn natural gas or oil.

2. A tax of 10% shall be applied on the profits of any firm which operates any existing lease for hydraulic fracturing operations from the 1st June 2020.

 a. This tax shall increase to 15% from the 1st June 2021.

 b. This tax shall increase to 20% on the 1st June 2022[/b]

 c. Beginning on January 1, 2022, the practice of hydraulic fracturing for oil and natural gas is prohibited within 2,500 feet of a home, school, or other inhabited structure in Atlasia.

 d. Beginning on January 1, 2024, the practice of hydraulic fracturing for oil and natural gas is prohibited on all onshore and offshore land in Atlasia.

Section V: Utility Ownership

1. The Department of Internal Affairs shall be instructed to create a Social Energy Fund.

  a. The Fund shall receive an amount equivalent to gaining public control over the top twenty five largest publicly traded energy companies.

    i. "Public Control" is defined as at least 51% of total shares.

  b. The Fund shall offer to voluntarily purchase up to 51% of the total shares in the companies described in IV.1.a.
 
    i. With each offer, the Department of Internal Affairs shall release a statement declaring its aim to compulsorily purchase the shares required to acquire a majority within sixteen months.

  c. The Fund shall be chartered to utilize its stake in the companies described in IV.1.a to achieve the following.

    i. Compliance with international de-carbonization objectives.
   
    ii. The transition to an energy sector led by publicly owned renewable energy companies.
 
    iii. The gradual phase-out of fossil fuel extraction.

Section VIV: Public Works

1. The Department Internal Affairs shall be instructed to create a New Public Works Administration

  a. The NPWA shall develop, administrate, maintain and oversee public building projects.

  b. The NPWA shall be led by the ranking officer for the Department of Internal Affairs.

    i. Shall there be no ranking officer for the Department Internal Affairs be vacant, these duties shall fall to the President of Atlasia.

2. The ranking officer for the Department Internal Affairs may appoint a board of NPCs to assist in the development of NPWA projects.

3. NPWA projects shall include

    a. Steel and Auto Manufacturing

    b. a. Construction and Enginering

    c. b. Renewable Energy Development and Energy Efficiency Retrofitting

    d. c. Coding, Server Farms and Technological Development

    e. d. Sustainable Agriculture

    f. e. Civil Corps
 
    g. Finance and Information

    h. Statistics and Social Research

4. All NPWA projects shall provide workers with the following.

  a. Pay equivalent to 10% above a "living wage" determined by residency.

  b. Full membership in a labor union.

  c. Employment benefits delegated per project.

5. The NPWA shall seek to employ twenty million workers over a ten-year period.

6. 5. The NPWA shall operate with an annual budget of $250 100 billion.

Section VIIVI: Effective Date

1. This act takes effect on June 1st, 2020.

[Peanut]

Blair?

[Blair]

I’ll be looking to finish my amendment which builds on this; I’d like to see a jobs commitment in forms and the possibility of some sort of public energy consortium but appreciate Lumines amendment

[Peanut]

So is the amendment friendly for now, Congressman?

[Elcaspar]

I can agree with everything expect for the striking of Section V. Energy works better as a public good, than it does under private ownership. Looking forward to Blair's amendment if it includes some sort of public energy consortium.