After a months of successes and stalls, it seems like Congress has finally compromised its way to an Energy Bill that the President will sign before Christmas.

After the first failed attempt to bring the bill up yesterday, bill proponents removed the tax incentives and mandates for renewable energy and secured continued tax breaks for big oil corporations, making the bill more palatable to opponents. What's left is an Energy Bill that not about our use of energy in the broad sense, but is more specifically about transportation fuels.

The bill as it passed out of the Senate retains an historic increase in the auto fuel economy standard-- the only meaningful increase in 30 years. The improvement in gas mileage is expected to save 1.2 million barrels of oil per day nationally, save Americans $25 billion annually, and greatly reduce global warming pollution.

Senators also granted a big boost for ethanol, increasing production to 36,000 billion gallons by 2022. Ethanol is considered a mixed bag by climate experts and hunger prevention advocates. On the plus side, biofuel expansion will create needed jobs in rural areas, and promise a convenient replacement to fossil fuels while promoting energy independence. On the downside, the UN has warned that the "rapid growth in liquid biofuel production will make substantial demands on the world's land and water resources at a time when demand for both food and forest products is also rising rapidly." And, different biofuels emit varying levels of heat-trapping pollution in production and combustion. As such, experts fear that they may actually be worse for the climate than traditional fuels. The Senate failed to add any climate protections to the Renewable Fuel Standard.

What may be the only non-transportation segments of the bill are new energy efficiency standards for lighting, applicance, and federal and commercial buildings. Also, federal energy efficiency standards will face a faster approval process.

The bill heads back to the House for a vote next week and the Administration says the President will sign it when it reaches his desk. While new mileage and efficiency standards are sure to eventually take a bite out of global warming, this is not the visionary legislation climate and renewable energy hopefuls had wanted-- one that would address global warming, rising energy costs, and energy security while spurring economic investment in renewable power and protecting low-income rate-payers.

The good news is Senate leaders say they will bring up the renewable energy standard and tax incentives for solar, wind and other green power sources again early next year. We encourage you to hold them to it. Talk to your representatives while they are home over the holiday break and let them know you strongly support renewable energy standards and incentives.