Senate Panel Begins Work on Bill Pushing Anti-Idling Methods

May 23, 2005 7:00 AM, EDT

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he Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee began work last week on an energy bill that would encourage the use of anti-idling technology on heavy-duty trucks and would fund biodiesel and fuel-cell research.

The bill would also require the president to take steps toward reducing U.S. demand for oil by a million barrels below currently expected 2015 levels — a proposal rejected by the House — and to increase the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to a billion barrels of oil from its current 700 million-barrel level.

Energy Committee chairman Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) said swift passage of the bill was necessary because the country was going to face “an energy crisis . . . that would be terribly debilitating for our economy.”

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