A continuation of the first part below, admittedly delayed with thanks to moving from DC to Philly and then back to North Carolina, and moving into an apartment that had to be furnished (i.e. was not a sublet complete with half-broken furniture). Turning 21 was a much better rite of passage to adulthood.

TITLE II--CONSERVATION AND EFFICIENCY
Subtitle C--Home and Business Tax Incentives
This basically extends a bunch of tax credits for energy efficient appliances (Sec. 221); nonbusiness energy property--whatever that is (Sec. 222); residential energy efficient property (Sec. 223); new energy efficient homes (Sec. 224); and energy efficient commercial buildings (Sec. 225). I personally would like to see a tax credit for energy efficient pets. I would then nominate my rats (yes, rats) Hillary Clinton and Monica Lewinsky (yes, Hillary and Monica).

Truly my favorite part is Sec. 25e, ominously titled "Home Energy Audits." Basically if you get your home audited for its energy efficiency, you get 50% of it as a tax credit--as long as it's under $400. This gives the Secretary of Energy the power to (1) create regulations to explain what a qualified energy audit is and (2) create regulations to determine who is qualified to perform a qualified energy audit. Who said we weren't creating jobs in America?

My Thoughts
Any time there's a tax credit I like it. But this just smacks in general of creating additional bureaucracy and red tape. Qualified energy audits? Qualified energy auditors? It's all the by-produt of a behavior modification scheme: Congress has decided people should be more energy efficient, but it doesn't want to mandate it, so it will create lots of hoops. With shiny prizes. The hoops are the audits; the shiny prizes are your dollars that remain in your pocket.

Subtitle D--Refinery Permit Process Schedule
So I think the goal is to make sure refineries get permits faster because government red tape ties things up, which shouldn't be a surprise for anyone who's ever applied for a passport.

This means that the EPA will fork over money to hire "additional personnel...with expertise in fields relevant to the consideration of Federal refinery authorizations" at the state level. But, even better, the president will appoint a "Federal coordinator" (Sec. 234.a.1) and, just in case other bureaucrats got any ideas, by law they "shall cooperate with the Federal coordinator" (Sec. 234.a.2).

And the new refinery permit process schedule looks like this.

By thirty days -- The Federal coordinator calls a meeting with "representatives from all Federal and State agencies responsible for a Federal refinery authorization." Sweet. I bet it won't take long at all to get all those schedules coordinated (Sec. 234.b.1).

By ninety days -- The Federal coordinator and everyone else at the meeting writes a memo. That memo will "[set] forth the most expeditious coordinated schedule possible" (Sec. 234.b.2). Fifteen days after the memo's down, the Federal coordinator has to publish it in the Federal Register (Sec. 234.b.2.B). At this point, I do not want the Federal coordinator's job.

Oh, and apparently closed military bases are good for refineries. So within ninety days of Congress making this law, the president has to designate at least three "closed military installations" as "potentially suitable for the construction of a refinery" (Sec 235.a). I'm scratching my head too.

My Thoughts
I really cannot comment on the technical issues here. (I do not claim to be any expert on refinery facilities; I don't even pretend to be able to solve calculus problems anymore.) But I think this is, from an academic viewpoint, a study of what happens when you put the government in charge or something. One, you get lots of bureaucracy and red tape and meetings and memoranda that must be published. Two, you get to witness the amusement of our fellow citizens (for those are the people we put in Congress--not demi-gods) crafting rules for subjects with which they may not be terribly familiar. I'd love to ask my Congressman his stance on refinery permit processing.

So I really like #dontgo and I really like the continued Republican revolt and I really, really like seeing a coherent Republican policy that has the attention of the American public.

I know that policy is the American Energy Act (HR 6566). I know it's an "all of the above energy solution," but uh, I don't really know what that means. I just know it sounds good.

As a result, I decided to start figuring out what exactly we're fighting for and, more importantly, how much I believed in it. So I skipped Title I for now since it's all about offshore drilling and ANWR, and moved straight down to the next parts. I'd encourage you to give it your own look, especially if you lay claim to the #dontgo movement.

So here's part one of my pitiful attempt to decade legislation-ese into everyday speak. I couldn't find anything else like it in a few Google searches. Scary, right?

TITLE II--CONSERVATION AND EFFICIENCY
Subtitle A--Tax Incentives for Fuel Efficiency
If you get a new plug-in electric car after December 31, 2008, you get a $3200 tax credit. For every kwh the engine has in excess of 5kwh, you get $200; the maximum "bonus" is $2000. So the maximum tax credit is $5000. [Sec. 30D. a+b] Amusing restrictions include it being brand spanking new ("original use" must begin "with the taxpayer"); it being "made by a manufacturer"; and it "weighing less than 14,000 pounds." On a more serious note, it has to receive a "certificate of conformity under the Clean Air Act." [Sec. 201. Sec. 30D.; d(1)]

But watch out. If an electric car is sold during the phase-out period, you only get a percentage of the tax credit: 50% during the first two calendar quarters of phaseout; 25% during the next two calendar quarters of phaseout; and a nice zero anytime after that. To determine the phaseout period, solve 4x^zqd(14/6kg)*6=ugh. Really, it's the second calendar quarter after the car manufacturer sells "at least 60,000" of those electric suckers for use in the US. [Sec. 201; Sec. 30D; e]

The rule that really intrigues me comes from Sec. 201; Sec 30D; f(2): "RECAPTURE- The Secretary [of Energy] shall, by regulations [yessss!], provide for recapturing the benefit of any credit allowable under subsection (a) [the $3200 + bonus pay] with respect to any property which ceases to be property eligible for such credit." From whom will such benefits be captured? How does an electric car cease to become eligible? Do I have to total it?

By the way, for those of you who thought legislation was sexy, I bring you Sec. 201; Sec 30D; c:
"Credit Made Part of General Business Credit- Section 38(b) of such Code is amended--
(1) by striking `and' each place it appears at the end of any paragraph,
(2) by striking `plus' each place it appears at the end of any paragraph,
(3) by striking the period at the end of paragraph (31) and inserting `, plus', and
(4) by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
(32) the portion of the new qualified plug-in electric drive motor vehicle credit to which section 30D(c)(1) applies."

All I can think of is this is how the world ends. Not with a bang, but with a "striking 'and' each place it appears at the end of any paragraph."

My Thoughts
I find it a little sad that in doling out tax credits, the amount for an electric car is higher than the amount for a child. But in general, anything that results in less money going to the government and more money staying in peoples' pockets is a good thing to me. Since this fits the bill (harhar), I am okay with it.

Still, I doubt the rationale (if any) behind it. If electric cars really are more energy efficient, I think Americans are rational enough to purchase them on their own. This is why I drive a Honda Civic instead of a Dodge Ram 3500 (black, Laramie style cab in case you're curious). I recognize the nearly limitless joy I would obtain from driving such an amazing vehicle is outweighed by the truly limitless pain I would feel every time I filled the tank. With diesel. Ow.

Subtitle B--Tapping America's Ingenuity and Creativity
There will be a prize. For new and good energy ideas...stuff...things. Because Americans love prizes. Especially when they're in cold, hard cash, baby.

The Secretary of Energy will make sure everyone knows about this prize, "including individuals, universities, communities, and large and small businesses" [Sec. 213(b)]. This is a great example of government at work: they could have just left it at "individuals" since "individuals" make up all the other things on the list. But oh well.

Since we're Republican, we'll make sure this plan is competitively sourced dammit! The Secretary of Energy can form an agreement with a "private, nonprofit entity" to basically run the show. This includes everything from advertising this madness to selecting the criteria by which to select the winners (with the Secretary's seal of approval of course). [Sec. 213(c)] But no way is word getting out about this contest before the Secretary has shaken every federal agency down to make sure the Department of Energy can put its money where its mouth is, i.e. pay out the whole prize [Sec. 213(e)].

Oh, and the Secretary of Energy gets a big ol' $2 million each fiscal year from 2009 to 2020 for the "administrative costs" of running the contest. (I hereby nominate myself and my newly formed non-profit College Costs a Lot of Money to handle this part.) Plus 40 percent of the American Energy Trust Fund (which is 90 percent of 50 percent of money in new offshore drilling federal oil leases--go government math!) can be used "without further appropriation [i.e. action by Congress] to carry out specified provisions of this section." Except then there are no specifications.

But--sweetest deal ever--the award is tax-free [Sec. 217].

My Thoughts
Weak sauce guys. I mean... It sounds good. It's a prize. And people are competing for it. And it uses free market thinking to get a desired outcome. Incentives are good.

Am I the only one who thinks it's, well, a giant waste? The engineering genius who pioneers the next thing in energy is going to be swimming in money. Giant vats of $100 bills kind of swimming. Entreprenuers know this. So I'm ot sure why the government needs to spend $22 million (not adjusting for inflation!) in a vain attempt to hurry along a process that free will, free people, and a free market have already set in motion.

The House GOP revolt--now christened the #dontgo/Don't Go Movement--has been sustained by bloggers and Twitter-ers dispersing information to everyone in the world. So in that spirit, here are some cleaned up notes from the Heritage Foundation's Conservative Blogger Briefing today. I'll be posting later about this here and on TechRepublican, but if these notes can help anyone in furthering this cause, wonderful. Perfect. Just what I'm hoping for.

For those looking for great soundbites, I took the liberty of pulling out from favorite quotes from each representative's talk with us. Anything not in direct quotations is my paraphrasing. Anything incorrect is most likely my transcription error.

Representative Jeb Hensarling (TX-5)

• Best line: "Speaker Pelosi, let my people vote."
• Republicans want an up/down vote on the American Energy Act, an "all-of-the-above" plan that includes offshore drilling, support for alternative energies, and a host of other provisions.
• We need more oil now because we're still in a carbon-based economy and people are hurting now. For some reason Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats have a "religious aversion" to any carbon-based energy.
• If we commit to producing American energy now, we will see future prices go down immediately.
• Nancy Pelosi claimed she would run an open and fair Congress and now she won't let comprehensive bipartisan legislation about an issue that Americans care about most to even come to a vote.

Representative Duncan Hunter (CA-52)

• Best quote (okay, ad libbed here): The price of oil coming down makes the Republican case. "Supply and demand works; perception works." The price of oil goes down when Americans pursue energy independence.
• Paying money for foreign oil/gas means that American dollars are eventually going back to support (as an example) weapons used to fight American troops. See: Hugo Chavez in Venezuela using "American petroleum dollars to purchase Russian hardware."
• There are people on the fringe of the Democratic Party who "truly want" Americans to park their cars and quit driving, but that won't work in a wide open and far flung country like ours (e.g. in a rural area where you may have to drive 100mi+ for your son to play a baseball game).

Representative Mike Pence (IN-6)

• Best quote: "Friday it was a stunt but what's happening now is unprecedented."
• Second best quote: "Welcome to the revolution."
• Nancy Pelosi is frustrating the will of the American people. There is a bipartisan majority in Congress that would support a comprehensive energy plan that includes more drilling. That explains why the Speaker has never brought it up for a vote.

Representative John Carter (TX-31)

• Best quote: "Nobody really thought it would go past 'oh, we'll just talk to an empty chamber.'"
• Second best quote: "This is the future of America. This is what it's all about."
• Third best quote, in reference to the MoveOn protest: "Let 'em come. Our message is true. Our message is right."
• The "head in the sand position" says "if we just wait until after the election..." -- but that's the wrong message to send to the American people.
• "Alternatives [alternative energies] are wonderful" and we need them in the future to replace American dependence on foreign oil.
• High gas prices are a burden on every part of America. When school starts in September, "millions of school buses will be rolling and school districts see a 50% increase in the cost of fuel since May when they closed down school."
• Seventy members of Congress are coming back today and there will be more in the future.
• We shouldn't open the strategic oil reserve. It'll lower prices between three and seven cents/gallon until October when we have to replace it all. It's a strategic reserve because it's for a crisis situation in which a major foreign oil supply is cut off, and we need to ration in that situation. But if we use it now, we'll go through $20/barrel oil and have to replace it with $120/barrel oil.

Representative Marilyn Musgrave (CO-4)

• Best quote: "We have a Speaker on a book tour. Can she identify with the average American?"
• Republicans have been discouraged because they don't see their politicians fighting back enough, but this is a good fight.

Representative Louie Gohmert (TX-1)

• Best funny quote, about wind energy production in Massachusetts: "I don't know if Massachusetts sucks or blows."
• Second best funny quote, about caribou being harmed by pipelines: "Caribou, when they want to go on dates, will invite each other to go to the pipeline...Something about the pipeline makes them amorous."
• People who say it will be 10 years before we get oil from ANWR are using 30-year-old information. Right now there's a 74-mile pipeline there; it could be as soon as two years to start having oil and gas flowing in from ANWR.
• People said putting platforms and oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico would decimate the ocean life and end all fishing and shrimping, but now the best fishing opportunities are around those platforms because they act as artificial reefs.

Representative John Shadegg (AZ-3)

• Best quote: "For some people, gas prices are a life or death issue."
• Second best quote: "The truth is that current anti-energy policy makes no economic sense, no environmental sense, and no national
  security sense."
• The poorest Americans drive the oldest cars with the worst mileage and live the farthest from where they work.
• The United States has had an "anti-energy" policy for 30 years.
• Our circumstances have changed in two important ways. First, the price of energy has increased dramatically. Second, technology has improved so that we can remove oil in an environmentally friendly way that is more environmentally sensitive than any other country.
• The American spirit means that we're a "can-do" people and Nancy Pelosi is representing a "can't-do" attitude. Every time the country has faced a seemingly impossible challenge, it's risen to the occasion.
• Democrats who worry about the environmental problems with oil rigs off-shore aren't worried about oil coming to the United States in ships, which could also produce an environmental calamity.
• It would be wonderful to have Senator McCain come down to the floor of the House to speak.