Last week, an amendment including much of the DRIVE Act's provisions, by Reps. Eliot Engel and Jay Inslee, passed the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Six Republicans joined the Democrats in voting for it.

And an amendment by Reps. Inslee, Engel and Jane Harman also passed -- establishing a 5,000 vehicle plug-in HEV conversion pilot program (five cities /1,000 conversions per city!) The next steps for the coalition will focus on the tax credits side.

Green Car Congress's Michael Millikin has done a great job summarizing the latest developments. We reprint that below followed by information about who's on the House Committee and how to contact them.

House Energy Package Heading to Floor Dodges CAFE, Offers Incentives
for Plug-in Hybrids
Green Car Congress 29 June 2007
http://www.greencarcongress.com/­2007/­06/­house-energy-pa.html

The leadership of the US House of Representatives yesterday staged a press event to broadly discuss the package of energy legislation that is on its way for consideration in the full House floor in July, after appropriations measures are finished.

The package does not contain vehicle fuel-efficiency standards. During the event, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell (D-MI) noted that the question over altering fuel economy rules (CAFE) will re-emerge in the climate change/global warming legislation that his committee will tackle beginning in September. However, one of the elements of the legislation currently heading to the floor is a bill to promote plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and components.

The component of the package for plug-ins and electric transportation:

• Establishes a loan guarantee program for the construction of advanced battery manufacturing facilities.
• Amends the language in the Energy Policy Act of 2005 that provides manufacturing conversion grants for hybrid-electric vehicles to include plug-in hybrids and components.
• Establishes a program to provide grants on a cost-shared basis to State governments, local governments, metropolitan transportation authorities, air pollution control districts, private or nonprofit entities or combinations thereof, to carry out projects to encourage the use of plug-in electric drive vehicles or other emerging electric vehicle technologies.
• Provides incentives for federal and state fleets for medium- and heavy-duty hybrids.
• Amends the Energy Policy Act of 1992 to include a number of forms of electric drive vehicles, including plug-in hybrids, for the allocation of credits.

During the committee markup sessions, a number of amendments were added, including:

• Establishing a 5,000-vehicle PHEV conversion pilot program that would involve 5 cities with 1,000 conversions per city.
• Establishing a revolving loan program for qualified electric transportation projects, which includes ship-side or shore-side electrification; truck-stop electrification; electric truck refrigeration units; battery powered APUs for trucks; electric airport ground support equipment; electric or dual-mode electric freight rail; any distribution upgrades required to supply electricity to the projects; and any ancillary infrastructure.
• Authorizing grants to owners of electric drive transportation technology to use off-peak electricity or to have the load managed by the utility.
• Establishing a market assessment program for electric-drive transportation technologies.
• Establishing a program to determine how to integrate PHEVs into the transmission grid, to develop systems and processes to allow plug-ins to function as emergency back-up power sources for consumers.
• Ordering a study from the DOT, DOE and other agencies on the benefits of and barriers to the widespread use of city electric cars (higher speed than neighborhood electric vehicles, lower speed than passenger vehicles) and which may be battery electric, fuel-cell electric or plug-in hybrids.
• Specifically including hydraulic hybrids in the vehicle mix.

[Read the rest of the posting to understand what's happening on CAFE standards between Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Energy and Commerce Committee Chair John Dingell, and Rep. Joe Barton.]

Below are resources (thanks to Plug In America's alert) to help you see who's on the Committee and follow what's happened, and contact them easily.

It's not easy to find out how the votes went on any item -- a starting point is at http://energycommerce.house.gov/­cmte_mtgs/­index_110.shtml

House Energy & Commerce Committee Members http://energycommerce.house.gov/­membios/­110fullmship.shtml#FULL John D. Dingell (MI), Chairman Ratio: 31-26 Democrats Republicans Henry A. Waxman, CA Joe Barton, TX, Ranking Member Edward J. Markey, MA Ralph M. Hall, TX Rick Boucher, VA J. Dennis Hastert, IL Edolphus Towns, NY Fred Upton, MI Frank Pallone, Jr., NJ Cliff Stearns, FL Bart Gordon, TN Nathan Deal, GA Bobby L. Rush, IL Ed Whitfield, KY Anna G. Eshoo, CA Barbara Cubin, WY Bart Stupak, MI John Shimkus, IL Eliot L. Engel, NY Heather Wilson, NM Albert R. Wynn, MD John Shadegg, AZ Gene Green, TX Charles W. "Chip" Pickering, MS Diana DeGette, CO, Vice Chair Vito Fossella, NY Lois Capps, CA Steve Buyer, IN Mike Doyle, PA George Radanovich, CA Jane Harman, CA Joseph R. Pitts, PA Tom Allen, ME Mary Bono, CA Jan Schakowsky, IL Greg Walden, OR Hilda L. Solis, CA Lee Terry, NE Charles A. Gonzalez, TX Mike Ferguson, NJ Jay Inslee, WA Mike Rogers, MI Tammy Baldwin, WI Sue Myrick, NC Mike Ross, AR John Sullivan, OK Darlene Hooley, OR Tim Murphy, PA Anthony D. Weiner, NY Michael C. Burgess, TX Jim Matheson, UT Marsha Blackburn, TN G. K. Butterfield, NC Charlie Melancon, LA John Barrow, GA Baron P. Hill, IN

To phone or fax your representative, use this link and just type in your state and zip+4: http://www.house.gov/­writerep/­

If you don't know your zip+4, this link will give you an alphabetical list of representatives: http://www.house.gov/­house/­MemberWWW.shtml