Green and labor groups Monday offered up a seven-item wish list for Congress to pass in the lame-duck session beginning this week. The list includes familiar items aimed at renewable energy and efficiency standards as well as energy industry worker health and safety. Bingaman and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) last week talked about the possibility of bringing up the RES — which would require 15 percent of electricity to be produced from renewable energy sources by 2021, with a quarter of that mandate able to be met with energy-efficiency measures. But there has been no public commitment made by Reid to bring it up for a debate this year. Aside from the RES, the other six provisions from the BlueGreen Alliance are:
#a $6 billion set of Home Star rebates for homeowners and home builders to install energy-efficient materials;
# a Building Star program that aims to boost commercial energy efficiency improvements;
# extension of an advanced manufacturing tax credit and federal grants providing payments for specified energy property in lieu of tax credits;
# miner-safety and health legislation named after the late-Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) that also would address standards for refinery and other energy industry workers;
# extension of direct loans for retooling manufacturing facilities that can produce advanced vehicles; and
# federal loans for the construction of wastewater, drinking water and water efficiency and other clean-water projects.
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